RAPID: Determination of health risks and Status from SARS-CoV-2 Presence in Urban Water cycle

新冠肺炎已经在全球范围内影响了人类健康。因此，了解新冠肺炎的传播是国家的迫切需要。该项目以城市污水处理系统为重点，解决了这一需求。众所周知，洗手水和厕所产生的废水携带人类病原体。因此，城市污水是人类接触非典型肺炎冠状病毒(导致新冠肺炎的冠状病毒)等病毒的重要途径。该项目的目标是确定从不同城市污水处理厂和下水道获得的废水是否含有SARS-CoV2病毒。第二个目标是利用这些信息了解污水处理厂工人的暴露风险，并跟踪社区新冠肺炎感染情况。这将通过检测城市污水中是否存在SARS-CoV2(或其遗传物质)来实现。这些信息将与其他水质参数的数据结合起来，以建立SARS-CoV2与废水质量之间的相关性。结果将有助于了解污水处理厂操作员接触SARS-CoV2的风险。此外，这个项目的结果有可能被用作快速追踪社区中新冠肺炎热点的手段。由冠状病毒SARS-CoV2引起的COVID-19已经成为一种全球性的流行病，在全球范围内导致超过25万人死亡。虽然SARS-CoV2与SARS-CoV1病毒有一些相似之处，但我们仍然缺乏必要的信息来了解这种病原体在市政污水基础设施中的生存和传染性。众所周知，厨房和卫生间产生的城市废水携带人类病毒病原体，因此对人类来说是一种潜在的接触途径。该项目的目标是开发有效的技术来提取和监测废水中的SARS-CoV2。这项研究的第二个目标是了解与城市污水流入和处理后的污水中存在的SARS-CoV2相关的人类健康风险。这将通过三项广泛的任务实现：(1)选择生物标志物，并开发快速有效地提取和分析废水中SARS-CoV2的方法；(2)采样废水处理厂和分配系统，以确定时空传播；以及(3)开发暴露于SARS-CoV2的风险预测模型。该项目将生成可用于为市政污水处理厂运营商开发健康风险模型的数据。该项目产生的结果也有望帮助流行病学家和其他卫生专业人员了解和预测社区中的新冠肺炎疫情。该项目将通过对一名女研究生的教育和培训，扩大该国STEM劳动力的多样性。对社会更广泛的影响包括可能开发早期预警工具来检测人类病原体的传播，如COVID-19。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

COVID-19 has impacted human health on a global scale. Understanding the spread of COVID-19 is thus an urgent national need. This project addresses this need focusing on the urban wastewater treatment system. Wastewater generated by wash water and toilets is known to carry human pathogens. Thus, municipal wastewater represents an important pathway for human exposure to viruses like SARS-CoV2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19). The goal of this project is to determine if wastewater obtained from different municipal wastewater treatment plants and sewer lines harbors SARS-CoV2. A secondary goal is to use this information to understand the exposure risk to wastewater treatment plant workers and track community COVID-19 infections. This will be achieved by testing whether SARS-CoV2 (or its genetic material) is present in municipal wastewater. This information will be combined with data on other water quality parameters to establish correlations between SARS-CoV2 and wastewater quality. Results will help understand the risk of exposure to SARS-CoV2 in wastewater treatment plant operators. In addition, the results from this project have potential to be used as a rapid measure to track hotspots of COVID-19 in the community.COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV2 has become a global pandemic, resulting in over a quarter million fatalities worldwide. Although SARS-CoV2 has some similarity to the virus SARS-CoV1 (a well-studied coronavirus responsible for a severe respiratory disease outbreak earlier this century), we still lack information needed to understand the survival and infectivity of this pathogen in municipal wastewater infrastructure. Municipal wastewater generated in kitchens and restrooms is known to carry human viral pathogens, thus representing a potential exposure pathway for humans. The goal of this project is to develop efficient techniques to extract and monitor SARS-CoV2 in wastewater. The secondary goal of this research is to understand human health risks associated with the presence of SARS-CoV2 in municipal wastewater influent and treated effluent. This will be achieved through three broad tasks to: (1) select biomarkers and develop methods for rapid and efficient extraction and analysis of SARS-CoV2 in wastewater; (2) sample wastewater treatment plants and distribution systems to determine spatial and temporal spread; and (3) develop a risk prediction model for exposure to SARS-CoV2. This project will generate data that can be used to develop health risk models for municipal wastewater treatment plant operators. Results generated from this project also hold promise to help epidemiologists and other health professionals to understand and predict COVID-19 outbreaks in the community. This project will expand the diversity of the Nation’s STEM workforce through the education and training of a female graduate student. Broader impacts to society include the potential development of early warning tools to detect the spread of human pathogens such as COVID-19.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.