
NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | May 12, 2020 |
Latest Amendment Date: | May 12, 2020 |
Award Number: | 2029025 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Mamadou Diallo
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
Start Date: | May 15, 2020 |
End Date: | April 30, 2021 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $200,000.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $200,000.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
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History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2601 WOLF VILLAGE WAY RALEIGH NC US 27695-0001 (919)515-2444 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
Raleigh NC US 27695-7908 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | EnvE-Environmental Engineering |
Primary Program Source: |
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Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
The global COVID-19 pandemic has created major impacts to public health and the economy. Currently, there are over two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with nearly 700,000 cases in the United States. Limited testing capacity and asymptomatic infections have resulted in significant unknowns in the actual number of infections by SARS-CoV2 (the virus responsible for COVID-19). Therefore, alternative methods of tracking the SARS-CoV2 are urgently needed. The goal of this RAPID project monitor public health by surveilling SARS-CoV2 presence in wastewater in four cities in CA, NC, Washington DC, and TX. Samples will be gathered before, during, and after infection peaks in these four cities, creating a data collection essential to understanding the current pandemic. Coronavirus levels will be determined using methods that target specific parts of the virus. The wastewater data will be compared to data from the healthcare system to determine if testing wastewater can help predict COVID-19 presence in a community. Knowledge gained from this study will advance the understanding of how wastewater testing can be used to guide healthcare resources to individual communities, reducing long-term economic disruption of the larger community during future outbreaks.
Limited diagnostic testing and asymptomatic infections result in large uncertainty in the actual extent of SARS-CoV2 infections. Analysis of municipal wastewater is equivalent to analyzing a pooled sample from all community members for a community-scale measure of infection dynamics. A coordinated effort across four major geographically diverse metropolitan areas, Orange County, Raleigh, Washington, and DC, Houston will address knowledge gaps in the use of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool. Raw wastewater and primary solids will be collected from four municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the infection period to quantify SARS-CoV2, seasonal influenza, and an enteric virus in the samples. Using identical experimental protocols and incorporating other viruses into this analysis will validate and expand the understanding of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool for various human viruses in addition to SARS-CoV2. The team has public health and wastewater treatment expertise to examine how wastewater data relates to clinical data. The results from this study will help to characterize the full potential of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool and help prepare public health officials for future outbreaks. Results and methods will be shared in publicly available using FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) protocols to assist the larger network of researchers studying SARS-CoV2 in wastewater.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The project goal was to gain information about SARS-CoV-2 infection by monitoring municipal wastewater in four major metropolitan areas of the US: Washington, DC; Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; and Raleigh, NC. In this coordinated effort, we: 1) collected raw wastewater and/or primary solids from municipal wastewater treatment plants, capturing time periods before, during and after peak infection; 2) quantified SARS-CoV-2 markers in samples, and 3) examined associations between wastewater data and clinical infection data. We sampled over 48 treatment plants in these metropolitan areas ranging in populations served between 2700 residents to 4,000,000 residents. In total, the population contributing wastewater to these facilities was over 15 million. The team collected and analyzed samples from April 2020 to December 2020 and developed and optimized methods for sample concentration, extraction of RNA, and PCR methods for quantifying various markers for SARS-CoV-2. The signals were then compared to positive cases, positivity rates, and COVID-like illness (CLI) in the specific sewershed areas. Positive correlations were found between wastewater and case data, and the rates of change in both sets of data across the four metropolitan areas. However, there are area-specific differences, and we are exploring possible reasons for these differences, which may shed light on how wastewater surveillance can be used across different sewersheds of varying characteristics (population served, sewer densities, COVID testing penetration, etc.). A workshop between stakeholders (local public health officials, wastewater personnel) was also conducted and led to insights on how data should be presented to policymakers and the public. We shared these insights at an NSF RCN workshop on stakeholder engagement and received much positive feedback. We participated in the Association of Public Health Laboratories annual conference and gave a seminar on establishing a wastewater monitoring program. Partnerships with state DHHS (e.g., North Carolina DHHS) and city (e.g., Houston) officials were developed and led to: 1) assisting in setting up state-wide dashboards (e.g., COVID in wastewater websites in NC); 2) updating and informing state policy-makers on COVID trends (e.g., DHHS epidemiologists and the NC DHHS Secretary); 3) setting up a state-wide research network for continued and ongoing monitoring; 4) establishment of a city-wide wastewater surveillance program in Houston, TX that is used to inform public health action in real-time by the Houston Health Department. The RAPID grant led to new funding on wastewater surveillance for the co-PIs, including funding from the City of Houston, the NC Policy Collaboratory, the NSF, the Georgetown-Howard Center for Clinical and Translational Studies, and the CDC. Results from the project have been disseminated in conference presentations, seminars, workshops, and manuscripts (published, submitted, and in preparation). Graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs were involved in the study. All the co-PIs have emerged to become among the young leaders in wastewater-based epidemiology and are continuing to explore the leading-edge in this area.
Last Modified: 09/01/2021
Modified by: Francis L De Los Reyes Iii
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