Diane is a Professor of Environmental Biotechnology. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and a Titular Member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
As a Professor of Environmental Biotechnology with over 20 years’ experience in the field, in particular researching the role of microorganisms in protecting the environment, she is keen to make a meaningful contribution to raise awareness of microorganisms and the environment.
"Climate change and explosion in population growth are two of the most pressing issues facing the 21st century. There is an urgent need to ensure sustainable practices are used to meet population demands, such as food and energy security, without compromising the health of the environment. I believe microorganisms can provide sustainable solutions to safeguard and improve the environment. I wish to apply my expertise to champion the application of environmental biotechnology, to inform and bring together different stakeholders for the betterment of humanity."
Qualification
BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, PgCHE, FHEA, FIEnvSci, FRSB, CBiol, MRSC, SCImem
Diane is the programme leader for the BSc and MSci Environmental Science programes. She has special intereste in the environment and biotechnology, in particular the use of microorganisms to bioremediate environmental pollutants. She has been appointed to the Subject Benchmark Review panel for Earth Science, Environmental Sciences and Environmental Study by the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in 2014.
Diane has a keen interest in the field of environmental remediation. She has published widely and supervised a number of PhD students on:
Diane is member of the editorial boards of the following international journals published by Springer:
Selected peer-reviewed articles from 2010
Purchase D, Abbasi G, Bisschop L, Chatterjee D, Ekberg C, Fedotov P, Garelick H, Kandile N. Lundström, Matharu A, Miller B, Pineda A, Popoola O, Retegan T, Ruedel H, Serpe A, Sheva Y, Surati K, Walsh F, Wilson B.P. and Wong MH. 2020. Global occurrence, chemical properties and ecological impacts of e-wastes (IUPAC Technical Report). Pure and Applied Chemistry. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0502.
Saxena G, Purchase D, Mulla SI and Bharagava RN. 2020. Degradation and detoxification of leather tannery effluent by a newly developed bacterial consortium GS-TE1310 for environmental safety. Journal of Water Process Engineering. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2020.101592.
Safdar UM, Mavroulidou M, Gunn MJ, Garelick J, Payne I, Purchase D. 2020. Innovative methods of ground improvement for railway embankment peat fens foundation soil. Géotechnique. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.19.SiP.030
Islam M, Durie I, Ramadan R, Purchase D and Marvasi M. 2020. Exploitation of nitric oxide donors to control bacterial adhesion on ready-to-eat vegetables and dispersal of pathogenic biofilm from polypropylene. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 100, 3078-3086. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.10340
Yadav A, Raj A, Purchase D, Ferreira LFR, Saratale GD and Bhargava RN. 2019. Phytotoxicity, cytotoxicity and genotoxicity evaluation of organic and inorganic pollutants rich tannery wastewater from a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in Unnao district, India using Vigna radiata and Allium cepa. Chemosphere. 224, 324-332. https://doi.org/1016/j.chemosphere.2019.02.124
Zainith S, Purchase D, Ferreira LFR, Bailal M and Bhargava RN. 2019. Isolation and characterization of lignin-degrading bacterium Bacillus aryabhattai from pulp and paper mill wastewater and evaluation of its lignin-degrading potential. 3Biotech. 9:92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-019-1631-x
Saxena G, Purchase D, Mulla SI, Saratele GD and Bhargava RN. 2019. Phytoremediation of heavy metal-contaminated sites: eco-environmental concerns, field studies sustainability issues and future prospects. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.1007/398_2019_24
Popoola OE, Popoola AO and Purchase D. 2019. Levels of awareness and concentrations of heavy metals in the blood of electronic waste scavengers in Nigeria. Journal of Health and Pollution. 9:190311. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5696/2156-9614-9.21.190311
Chan W.K., Wildeboer D., Garelick H. and Purchase D. 2018. Competition of As and other Group 15 elements for surface binding sites of an extremophilic Acidomyces acidophilus isolated from a historial tin mining site. Extremophiles. 22(5), 795-809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-018-1039-2
Isimekhai K.A., Garelick H., Watt J., Purchase D. 2017. Heavy metal distribution and risk assessment in soil from an informal E-waste recycling site in Lagos State Nigeria. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 24(20), 17206-17219. DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-8877-9
Chan W.K., Wildeboer D., Garelick H., Purchase D. 2016. A proteomic study on the responses to arsenate stress by an acidophilic fungal strain Acidomyces acidophilus WKC1. Journal of Biotechnology and Biomaterials 6:5(Suppl). DOI: 10.4172/2155-952X.C1.058
Pantoja Munoz L., Purchase D., Jones H., Raab A., Urgast D., Feldmann J., Garelick H. 2016. The mechanisms of detoxcification of As(III), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and As (V) in the microalga Chlorella vulgaris. Aquatic Toxicology 175, 56-72. DOI:1016/j.aquatox.2016.02.020
Rüdel H., Díaz Muñiz C., Garelick H., Kandile N.G., W. Miller B.W., Pantoja Munoz L., Peijnenburg W.J.G.M., Purchase D., Shevah Y., van Sprang P., Vijver M. and Vink J.P.M. 2015. Consideration of the bioavailability of metal/metalloid species in freshwaters: experiences regarding the implementation of biotic ligand model-based approaches in risk assessment frameworks. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 22, 7405–7421. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4257-5.
Pantoja Munoz L., Purchase D., Jones H., Feldmann J. and Garelick H. 2014. Enhanced determination of As-phytochelatin complexes in Chlorella vulgaris using focused sonication for extraction of water-soluble species. Analytical Methods 6 (3), 791-797. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ay41629a.
Okoroma E.A., Purchase D., Garelick H., Morris R., Neale M.H., Windl O. and Abiola O.O. 2013. Enzymatic formulation capable of degrading scrapie prion under mild digestion conditions. PLOS One http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068099. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068099.
Okoroma E.A., Garelick H., Abiola O. and Purchase D. 2012. Identification and characterisation of a Bacillus licheniformis strain with profound keratinase activity for degradation of melanised feather. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation. 74, 54-60. DOI: 10.1016/j.ibiod.2012.07.013.
Radiar A.R.B. and Purchase D. 2012. Mathematical models to predict soil heavy metal toxicity in the 2012 Olympic site. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology9, 219-226. DOI:10.1007/s13762-012-0027-9.
Jiang Y., Jones H., Garelick H. and Purchase D. 2011. Effects of arsenate (As5+) on growth and production of glutathione (GSH) and phytochelatins (PCs) in Chlorella vulgaris. International Journal of Phytoremediation13, 834-844. DOI:10.1080/15226514.2010.525560.
Selected book series/ book chapters from 2010
Kishor R, Purchase D, Ferreira LFR, Mulla SI, Bilal M and Bharagava RN. 2020. Environmental and health hazards of textile industry wastewater pollutants and its treatment approaches. In: Handbook of Environmental Materials Management. Hussain CM (ed). Springer DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58538-3_230-1. In press.
Futughe AE, Purchase D and Jones H. 2019. Phytoremediation using native plants. In Phytoremediation In-situ Applications. Shmaefsky BR (ed). Springer, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-030-00099-8.Pp. 285-327 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-00099-8.
Chan WK, Wildeboer D, Garelick H, Purchase D. 2019. Acidomyces acidophilus: Ecology, biochemical properties, and application to bioremediation. In: Fungi in extreme environments: Ecological and biotechnological significance. Springer. Tiquia-Arashiro SM and Grube M (eds), Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-19030-9. Pp. 505-515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19030-9_25.
Saxena G, Purchase D and Bharagava RN. 2019. Environmental Hazards and Toxicity Profile of Organic and Inorganic Pollutants of Tannery Wastewater and Bioremediation Approaches. In: Bioremediation of Industrial Waste for Environmental Safety – Vol. I, Industrial waste and its management. Springer. ISBN 978-981-13-1891-7. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-1891-7_18.
Bharagava RN, Purchase D, Saxena G and Mulla SI. 2018. Applications of metagenomics in microbial bioremediation of pollutants: From genomics to environmental cleanup. In: Microbial Diversity in the Genomic Era. Das S and Das HR. (eds). Academic Press-Elsevier, USA. ISBN: 9780128148495. Pp. 459-477.
Purchase D (ed). 2016. Fungal Applications in Sustainable Environmental Biotechnology. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-42850-5.
Chan W.K., Wildeboer D., Garelick H., Purchase D. 2016. Mycoremediation of heavy metal/metalloid-contaminated soil: current understanding and future prospects. In: Fungal Applications in Sustainable Environmental Biotechnology. D Purchase (ed). Springer-Nature. 978-3-319-42850-5. pp. 143-181.
Egede E., Jones H., Purchase D., Cook B., Mouradov A. 2016. Application of fungal-algal associations for wastewater treatment. In: Fungal Applications in Sustainable Environmental Biotechnology. D Purchase (ed). Springer-Nature. ISBN 978-3-319-42850-5. pp. 249-272.
Gupta V.K., Zeilinger-Migsich S., Ferreira Filho E.X., Duran C. and Purchase D. (eds) 2016. Microbial Applications – Recent Advancements and Future Developments. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9-783-110-240-429.
Purchase D. 2016. “Microbial keratinases: characteristics, biotechnological applications and potential”. In: The Handbook of Microbial Bioresources. Gupta V.K., Thangadurai D., Sharma G.D., Gaur R. (eds). Wallingford: CAB International. ISBN 978-1-78064-521-6. pp. 634-674.
Garelick H, Purchase D and Alonso Molina J.L. 2014. "Microbial pollution of water". In: Integrated Water Cycle Management in Kazakhstan. Meyer B.C. and Lundy L (eds). Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Publishing House: Almaty. ISBN: 978-601-04-0900-2.
Selected conference speeches, papers and posters from 2010
Safdar UM, Purchase D, Mavroulidou M, Garelick J, Gunn MJ. 2019. Innovative methods of ground improvement for problematic transport earthwork materials. 16th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology CEST2019, Rhodes, Greece, 4-7 September 2019.
Amabogha ON, Garelick H, Jones H and Purchase D. 2019. Combining phytoremediation with bioenergy production: developing a multi-criteria decision matrix for plant species selection. 16th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology CEST2019, 4-7 September 2019, Rhodes, Greece, 4-7 September 2019.
Gonzales Baez A., Purchase D, Garelick H and Pantoja Muñoz L. 2019. Urban mines, recovering rare earth elements from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) through bioleaching. 16th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology CEST2019, 4-7 September 2019, Rhodes, Greece, 4-7 September 2019.
Purchase D, Abbasi G, Bisschop L, Chatterjee D, Ekberg C, Fedotov P, Garelick H, Kandile N. Lundström, Matharu A, Miller B, Pineda A, Popoola O, Retegan T, Ruedel H, Serpe A, Sheva Y, Surati K, Walsh F, Wilson B.P. and Wong MH. 2019. E-waste – an emerging 21st century global grand challenge: global occurrence, chemical properties and ecological impacts. IUPAC 47th World Chemistry Congress, Paris, France, 7-12 July 2019.
Popoola S, Purchase D, Jones H and Pantoja Munoz L. 2018. Enzymatic response in Eisenia hortensis and Lumbricus terrestris exposed to 3-, 4- and 5-ring hydrocarbons amended with biosurfactant. 6th International Symposium on Environmental Biotechnology and Engineering., Sonora, Mexico 5-9 November 2018.
Futughe AE, Jones H, Purchase D. 2018. A novel technology of solarization and phytoremediation enhanced with biosurfactant for sustainable treatment of PAH-contaminated soil. 15th International Phytotechnology Conference, Novi Sad, Serbia 1-5 October 2018.
Hayat F, Roitt I, Shah A, Purchase D and Bayford R. 2018. Synthesis and activity of antibiotics conjugated to gold nanoparticles. 21st International Conference an Advances in New Technologies and their Impact an Microbial Research, London, 21-22 June 2018.
Purchase D, Bisschop L, Ekberg C, Fedotov P, Garelick H, Kandile NG, Luque R, Popoola O E, Rüdel H, Serpe A, Surati K and Wilson BP. 2018. Global approaches to environmental exposure – assessment of e-waste. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) 28th Europe Annual Meeting, Rome 13-17 May, 2018.
Rüdel H, Díaz Muñiz C, Garelick H, Kandile N, Miller BW, Pantoja L, Peijnenburg W, Purchase D, Shevah Y, Van Sprang P, Vijver M and Vink JPM. 2018. Consideration of the bioavailability of metals and metal compounds in freshwaters in regulatory frameworks. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) 28th Europe Annual Meeting, Rome 13-17 May, 2018.
Purchase D. 2017. ‘E-waste: managing an emerging global environmental challenge’. 16th International EuCheMS Conference on Chemistry and the Environment, Oslo, Norway, 18-22 June 2017. Keynote.
Rűduel H., Abbasi G., Popoola O.E., Purchase D. 2017.’Can metals be used as tracers for organic contaminants in potentially e-waste-polluted environmental media?’ 16th International EuCheMS Conference on Chemistry and the Environment, Oslo, Norway, 18-22 June 2017.
Popoola S., Purchase D., Jones H. 2017. Enhanced vermiremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated lands with biosurfactants: an excotoxicological approach. 27th SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, Brussels 7-11 May, 2017.
Khonsari S., Gonzalez Baez A., Nguyen H., Pantoja Munoz L., Purchase D. ‘A study of the inhibition of biofilm formation on multiple surfaces by a biosurfactant containing four discrete lipopeptides.’ Microbiology Society Annual Conference, Edinburgh, UK, 3-6 April, 2017.
Purchase D. 2017. Electronic waste – an emerging global environmental and health challenge in the 21st century. SmART Cities and Waste Research Workshop: Urban Waste Streams & Flows, London, UK, 6 April, 2017. Invited speech
Chan W.K., Wildeboer D., Garelick H., Purchase D. ‘A proteomic study on the responses to arsenate stress by an acidophilic fungal strain Acidomyces acidophilus WKC1’. Biotechnology World Convention, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15-17 August 2016.
Khonsari S., Gonzalez Baez A., Nguyen H., Pantoja Munoz L., Purchase D. 2016. A study of the inhibition of biosurfactant on in vitro biofilm formation by bacterial pathogens: application of MALDI-TOF MS in strain indentification and characterisation of the lipopeptides. 19th Conference in Genomics and Proteomics of Human Pathogens, London, UK 23-24 June 2016.
Isimekhai K., Watt J., Garelick H., Purchase D. 2016. Risk analysis of informal recycling of electronic waste in Lagos State, Nigeria. 25th Society for Risk Analysis Europe Conference, Bath, UK 20-22 June 2016.
Ismekhai K., Garelick H., Watt J., Purchase D. 2015. Analysis of contaminated soil at an e-waste recycling site. A case study of Lagos, Nigeria. 15th EuCheMS International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment. Leipzig, Germany, 20-24th September 2015.
Pantoja L., Purchase D., Jones H., Feldmann J., Garelick H. 2014. The mechanisms of arsenic bioremediation from water by the green microalgaeChlorella vulgaris. THE BNASS / TraceSpec Tandem Conference Aberdeen, Scotland; 31st August - 4th September 2014.
Chan W., Wildeboer D., Garelick H., Purchase D. 2014. Investigating Arsenic Resistance in Fungi from Tin-mining Soil and the Possible Interaction Between Arsenic and Tin/Antimony. 10th International Mycological Congress, Bangkok, Thailand 3-8 August 2014.
Isimekhai A. K., Watt J., Garelick H., Purchase D. 2014. Environmental Risk Associated with Improper e-waste Activities in Lagos, Nigeria. 23rd Society for Risk Analysis Europe Conference, Istanbul, Turkey 16-18 June 2014.
Pantoja Muñoz L., Garelick H., Purchase D., Jones H. 2013. Arsenic Chelation, The Meeting of Two Kingdoms. 44th IUPAC Congress - Clean Energy Through Chemistry, 2013, Istanbul, Turkey 12-16 August 2013.
Munoz L.P., Purchase D., Jones H. and Garelick H. 2012. The occurrence of Arsenic-glutathione complesex in Chlorella vulgaris: off-line elemental (ICP-MS) and molecular (ES-MS) mass spectrometric detection for liquid chromatographic separation. 6th SETAC World Congress, Berlin 20-24 May, 2012.
Purchase D. 2011. Keynote Speech: 'Beauvaria, Biosurfactant and Bacillus - Microbial Potential in Remediating Pollutants'. 1st International Microorganism Conference: "Microorganisms facing their environment". Paris, France, 27-28 October, 2011.
Okoroma, E.A, Purchase D., Garelick H., Morris R. and Abiola O. 2011. Degradation of infective prion protein by a novel enzymatic composition. PRION 2011, Montreal, 16-19 May, 2011.
Saxena, Gaurav and Purchase, Diane and Mulla, Sikandar I. and Bharagava, Ram Naresh (2020) Degradation and detoxification of leather tannery effluent by a newly developed bacterial consortium GS-TE1310 for environmental safety. Journal of Water Process Engineering , 38 . pp. 1-13. ISSN 2214-7144
Sharma, Pooja and Purchase, Diane and Chandra, Ram (2020) Residual pollutants in treated pulp paper mill wastewater and their phytotoxicity and cytotoxicity in Allium cepa. Environmental Geochemistry and Health . ISSN 0269-4042 (Accepted/In press)
Kishor, Roop and Purchase, Diane and Ferreira, Luiz Fernando R. and Mulla, Sikandar I. and Bilal, Muhammad and Bharagava, Ram Naresh (2020) Environmental and health hazards of textile industry wastewater pollutants and its treatment approaches. In: Handbook of Environmental Materials Management. Hussain, Chaudhery Mustansar , ed. Living reference work . Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 1-24. ISBN 9783319585383 (Published online first)
Purchase, Diane and Abbasi, Golnoush and Bisschop, Lieselot and Chatterjee, Debashish and Ekberg, Christian and Ermolin, Mikhail and Fedotov, Petr and Garelick, Hemda and Isimekhai, Khadijah and Kandile, Nadia G. and Lundstrom, Mari and Matharu, Avtar and Miller, Bradley W. and Pineda, Antonio and Popoola, Oluseun E. and Retegan, Teodora and Ruedel, Heniz and Serpe, Angela and Shevah, Yehuda and Surati, Kiran R. and Walsh, Fiona and Wilson, Benjamin P. and Wong, Ming Hung (2020) Global occurrence, chemical properties, and ecological impacts of e-wastes (IUPAC technical report). Pure and Applied Chemistry . ISSN 0033-4545 (Published online first)
Safdar, Muhammad Umair and Mavroulidou, Maria and Gunn, Michael J and Garelick, Johanathan and Payne, Ian and Purchase, Diane (2020) Innovative methods of ground improvement for railway embankment Peat Fens foundation soil. Géotechnique . ISSN 0016-8505 (Published online first)
PI, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) projects #2018-026-2-600 and FSC #2018-027-1:Technical symposium on Innovative Chemistry for Environmental Enhancement for the 47th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, Paris, 2019.
PI, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) projects #2016-035-1-600 and FSC #2017-008-1: Development of three technical symposia on environmental chemistry for the 46th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, Sao Paulo 2017.
PI International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) project #2014-031-3-600: The environmental and health challenges of e-waste and its management: an emerging 21st century global concern.
Task group member: IUPAC Project No. 2011-060-1 Appropriate consideration of bioavailability of metals/metal compounds in the aquatic environment.
Biocementation project (#102233) - Knowledge Exchange Project with Network Rail.
Diane is the co-chair of the Chemical and Biophysical Processes in the Environment committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) since 2017. She has been elected as Titular member of IUPAC in 2019.
She is chairing a Task Group to lead the project: The environmental and health challenges of e-waste and its management: an emerging 21st century global concern, funded by IUPAC.
She chaired and organised a satellite event on e-waste in the 15th European Chemical Sciences International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment, 20-24 September 2015, Leipzig Germany.
She also co-chaired a plenary session on ‘Persistent Organic Pollutants and Waste Cycling’ the in 16th International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment (ICCE), Oslo, Norway, 18-22 June 2017.
She has organised a number of technical symposia in the 46th World Chemistry Congress in Sao Paulo in 2017 and the 47th Word Chemistry Congress in Paris in 2019.
As an executive member of the Committee of Heads of Environmental Science, Institution of Environmental Science and holder of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) portfolio, Diane engages in the advancement of environmental sciences through teaching, knowledge exchange, research and scholarship in the UK and international higher education sectors. She has been the Honorary Secretary from 2009-2019 and the author of the bimonthly newsletter for the committee.
Through CHES and as a Fellow of the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), Diane engages extensively with the professional bodies and practitioners in the environmental area. She has organised CHES Annual Meeting and Conferences in association with the HEA and written for 'Environmental Scientist' (an IES journal). She is member of the Subject Benchmark Review panel for Earth Science, Environmental Sciences and Environmental Study by the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).
Diane has been appointed to the Policy Subcommittee of the Society for Applied Microbiology in 2019.
