About Us
About Edge-Water DNA Inc.
Edge-Water DNA Inc. is a Canadian company set up as a social enterprise to apply advances in DNA technologies for better assessing water quality. The company was founded by Dr. Tom Edge, with establishment of a laboratory in Toronto in 2019, and incorporation in 2021. Our focus is on conducting microbial source tracking studies.
The company seeks to provide useful new knowledge and guidance to fix water quality problems, rather than to pursue profits. To date, the company has conducted microbial source tracking studies across Canada at over 50 beach and water recreation sites, over 300 creek/river monitoring sites, and over 200 stormwater and outfall sites. These studies have detected previously unrecognized human fecal pollution sources at many sites, as well as gull, Canada goose, and dog fecal pollution sources. The results have been used to rank the significance of sewage contamination problems instormwater systems, and to prioritize and guide remedial actions for stormwater systems, beaches, and other recreational waters.
Edge-Water DNA is an extension of Dr. Edge’s many years of public service conducting research at the National Water Research Institute, Environment and Climate Change Canada. He has been conducting microbial source tracking studies for over 20 years, and is a recognized expert throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. Edge-Water DNA is unique in having the laboratory capacity to conduct microbial source tracking studies using digital PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology to quantify DNA markers in water samples. The company maintains a database of results from this digital PCR technology platform to enable comparative assessments of fecal pollution levels in rivers, lakes, oceans, and at locations like beaches and stormwater outfalls across Canada.
About Tom
Tom worked through early studies on marine biology (B.Sc.) and the endangered Atlantic whitefish (M.Sc.), but got progressively more interested in the smaller “unseen” world of microbiology (Ph.D. in environmental microbiology, Carleton University).
Tom joined the federal government and worked in the Departments of Environment and Foreign Affairs in Ottawa for 10 years. He worked in senior policy positions to establish the Canadian and United Nations biotechnology regulatory frameworks for environmental introductions and international trade of genetically engineered organisms. He joined Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute in 2001 to establish a Biosafety Level 2 lab for conducting research on waterborne pathogens, microbial source tracking, and advances in genomics. He has over 100 publications in these areas and he has led a national workshop on the state of the science of microbial source tracking. Tom retired in 2018 to found Edge-Water DNA Inc. for working on water pollution problems.
Tom continues research as an Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department, McMaster University. He serves as Canadian Co-Chair of the Health Professionals Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission. He also serves on the Board of the Great Lakes Beaches Association, and on the Health Canada federal-provincial Working Group on the Canadian Recreational Water Quality Guidelines.