Genomic testing of wastewater to promote public health and safeguard economic performance

Facebook
Twitter
Email
LinkedIn

Generating solutions

Status

Active

Competition

Genomic Applications Partnership Program

Genome Centre(s)

GE3LS

No

Project Leader(s)

Fiscal Year Project Launched

2023-2024

Project Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the urgent need for early warning surveillance systems that can provide information to public health authorities on emerging COVID-19 variants and other infectious diseases. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a non-invasive, comprehensive and cost-effective early warning system that enables population-level monitoring independent of clinical testing. The research team has already developed an innovative platform for field-based sampling of wastewater followed by optimized nucleic acid purification in the lab. They have partnered with Alberta Health and municipal end-users to demonstrate that COVID-19 case numbers can be predicted with a six-day lead time, mirroring results from other teams globally. This project will leverage existing wastewater surveillance activities to analyze other high priority disease targets in Alberta municipalities and First Nations communities. As well as mitigating infection transmission and supporting the early detection of outbreaks, WBE can potentially create economic benefits by minimizing indirect effects of increased disease burden on employment, family structure, mental health, and education.

Photo credit: Riley Brandt, University of Calgary
Alex Buchner, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Navid Sedaghat, an undergraduate student in the Department of Environmental Sciences, collect wastewater samples from a community near Fish Creek Park. UCalgary researchers from the Cumming School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, and Schulich School of Engineering; Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets (ACWA), The City of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services (AHS) have teamed up to test Calgary wastewater for early signs of COVID-19 cases.
Facebook
Twitter
Email
LinkedIn