Cobus Gerber

I joined the University of South Australia in 2004 and am involved in the teaching of chemistry courses across various programs. Wastewater-Based Epidemiology is at the centre of my research activities and include analytical techniques, with particular emphasis on target compound extraction, chemical separation and analysis using mass detectors. Through the detection of compounds from complex wastewater mixtures, population-scale exposure to compounds of concern can be assessed. Our current focus is the estimation of consumption of psychoactive substances with abuse potential. The comparative levels of use of illicit substances is a good indicator of the scale of drug problems in a population, which are in turn linked to mental health. The prevalence and changes of use of pharmaceutical compounds can also be measured on a population scale to show how prescribing practices change and the effect of policy changes on drug use. The stability and factors affecting stability of target compounds are areas which require investigation for wastewater analysis as it continues to become a routine screening method. So too the pharmacokinetic parameters relating the the metabolism of drugs to distinguish between consumed and disposed drugs in wastewater. More recently our research team developed robust methods to detect Sars-CoV-2 virus in wastewater.