RAPID: Viral structure-function-activity in the engineered wastewater cycle

当前的全球COVID-19大流行是由冠状病毒SARS-CoV2引起的。虽然人类冠状病毒具有高度传染性，是大多数呼吸道感染的罪魁祸首，但新型SARS-CoV2的毒性特别强。这些病毒可以在各种条件和环境下生存，包括在人类废物流中。废水处理系统被广泛用作保护水体免受人类污染影响的最后屏障。然而，人们对冠状病毒在废水处理过程中的命运知之甚少。该RAPID项目的目标是在污水处理厂处理人类废物期间，对SARS-CoV2和其他病毒的命运建立基于科学的认识。这项研究的结果将使科学界和相关利益攸关方了解废物处理对SARS-CoV2以及其他潜在威胁和病原体的影响。如果取得成功，这一方法将提供急需的信息，以帮助应对当前的全球大流行病，并为今后的大流行病事件建立全球数据库。该提案解决了当前迫切需要了解工程废水处理系统中SARS-CoV2和其他病毒决定因素的丰度、活性和传播。SARS-CoV2等日益频繁和特别强效的微生物病原体的出现对公共卫生构成了紧迫的挑战。SARS-CoV-2感染在全球的迅速传播以及受试者的无症状潜伏期表明，我们对SARS-CoV-2的潜在宿主和传播途径的理解存在重大差距。其中一个蓄水池和潜在的传播途径是工程废水循环。废水处理有助于减少污染，并尽量减少人类对微生物威胁的暴露。该项目的目标是确定废水处理系统是否在当前的COVID-19大流行中起到蓄水池的作用。这将通过开展一项全球环境监测研究来实现，该研究使用大规模并行的高通量系统生物学方法来表征工程废水循环中的病毒结构-功能-活性措施。这项研究的结果将提供一个广泛的废物流、处理系统和消毒过程中SARS-CoV2和其他病毒的数据库。这项研究的第二个目标是为SARS-CoV2开发基于组学的生物标志物和定量分析，以跟踪工程废水处理系统中的命运。这项研究的成功完成将提供关于SARS-CoV2在环境中的行为的迫切需要的信息，这将为管理和减轻全球大流行影响的努力提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The current global COVID-19 pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV2, a coronavirus. While human coronaviruses are highly infective and responsible for the majority of respiratory tract infections, the novel SARS-CoV2 is particularly virulent. These viruses can survive under a variety of conditions and environments including within human waste streams. Wastewater treatment systems are widely used as a final barrier to protect water bodies from the impacts of human pollution. However, the fate of coronaviruses during the wastewater treatment process is poorly understood. The goal of this RAPID project is to develop a science-based understanding of the fate of SARS-CoV2 and other viruses during the treatment of human waste in wastewater treatment plants. Results of this research will inform the scientific community and relevant stakeholders of the impact of waste treatment on SARS-CoV2, as well as other potential threats and agents. If successful, this approach will provide urgently needed information to help respond to the current global pandemic and form the basis of a global database for future pandemic events. This proposal addresses a current pressing need to understand the abundance, activity and transmission of SARS-CoV2 and other viral determinants in engineered wastewater treatment systems. The emergence of increasingly frequent and especially potent microbial pathogens like SARS-CoV2 presents an urgent challenge to public health. The extremely rapid global spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections as well as an asymptomatic latency period in subjects suggests significant gaps in our understanding of potential reservoirs and transmission pathways of SARS-CoV2. One such reservoir and potential transmission pathway is the engineered wastewater cycle. Wastewater treatment serves to reduce pollution and minimize exposure of human populations to microbiological threats. The goal of this project is to determine if wastewater treatment systems serve as a reservoir in the current COVID-19 pandemic. This will be achieved by conducting a worldwide environmental surveillance study using massively parallel high-throughput systems biology approaches to characterize viral structure-function-activity measures in the engineered wastewater cycle. The results of this study will provide a database of SARS-CoV2 and other viruses in a broad spectrum of waste streams, treatment systems, and disinfection processes. A second aim of this research is to develop -omics based biomarkers and quantitative assays for SARS-CoV2 to track fate in engineered wastewater treatment systems. Successful completion of this research will provide urgently needed information on SARS-CoV2 behavior in the environment that will inform efforts to manage and mitigate the impacts of the global pandemic.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.