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

COVID-19已在全球范围内影响人类健康。因此，了解COVID-19的传播是国家的迫切需要。该项目解决了这一需求，重点是城市污水处理系统。众所周知，洗涤水和厕所产生的废水携带人类病原体。因此，城市废水是人类接触SARS-CoV 2（导致COVID-19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的城市污水处理厂和下水道管道获得的废水是否含有SARS-CoV 2。第二个目标是利用这些信息来了解污水处理厂工人的暴露风险，并跟踪社区COVID-19感染情况。这将通过测试SARS-CoV 2（或其遗传物质）是否存在于城市废水中来实现。这些信息将与其他水质参数的数据相结合，以建立SARS-CoV 2和废水质量之间的相关性。研究结果将有助于了解污水处理厂操作员暴露于SARS-CoV 2的风险。由冠状病毒SARS-CoV 2引起的COVID-19已成为全球大流行病，导致全球超过25万人死亡。尽管SARS-CoV 2与SARS-CoV 1病毒（一种经过充分研究的冠状病毒，导致本世纪早期的严重呼吸道疾病爆发）有一些相似之处，但我们仍然缺乏了解这种病原体在城市污水基础设施中的生存和感染性所需的信息。已知厨房和卫生间产生的城市废水携带人类病毒病原体，因此是人类的潜在接触途径。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-CoV 2。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SARS-CoV 2的存在相关的人类健康风险。这将通过三项广泛的任务来实现：（1）选择生物标志物并开发快速有效提取和分析废水中SARS-CoV 2的方法;（2）对废水处理厂和分配系统进行采样，以确定空间和时间传播;（3）开发SARS-CoV 2暴露的风险预测模型。该项目将生成可用于为城市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COVID-19疫情。该项目将通过教育和培训一名女研究生，扩大国家STEM劳动力的多样性。对社会更广泛的影响包括早期预警工具的潜在发展，以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，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.