Significant progress in water purification is being made by researchers at universities in the U.S. and Canada, including advances emerging from work led by Fulton Schools Professor Bruce Rittmann, director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at ASU’s Biodesign Institute. His team has deployed groups of microorganisms that rid water of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. These toxic chemicals, which have seeped into water supplies far and wide, pose health risks to humans and threaten the environment. The microorganisms being used in the ASU research are acting like “PFAS assassins,” raising hope that a surefire solution has been found to the water contamination caused by these chemicals.