Miguel Abreu

Miguel Abreu is a master's student in Applied Microbiology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. His thesis, "Fate of priority pathogens and their genes in wastewater treatment systems: informing public and environmental health" (2026–2027), is supervised by Professor Mónica Cunha and Dr. Rita Elias of the Pathogen Biology and Global Health Research Group at the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C). The project uses shotgun metagenomics to map the fate of pathogens, resistance genes, and microbial functional potential across the wastewater treatment process, integrating these data with routine operational parameters. The results are intended to support public and environmental health decisions, particularly regarding the community resistome, plant design and monitoring, risks to receiving water bodies, and the safe disposal of digested sludge.