RCN: Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats

正在进行的新冠肺炎大流行仍然是对国家和全球公共卫生的紧迫威胁。废水监测已成为现有临床工具的通用和补充平台，用于监测和跟踪新冠肺炎在社区的传播和传播。WSS的基本前提是，从未经处理的废水样本中提取的微生物和病毒生物标志物的检测和量化可用于监测传染性病原体的发病、传播和社区传播，如SARS-CoV-2病毒及其变种。这个研究协调网络(RCN)的首要目标是支持将WWS用作公共卫生监测工具的广大从业者和利益相关者社区。为了推进这一目标，该区域网络的核心研究人员及其国家/国际合作伙伴将整合他们的专业知识并利用他们的资源来解决世界卫生系统中的关键知识差距和需求，包括改进分析和采样方法以及研究人员、从业者和公共卫生利益攸关方之间更有效的合作、交流和信息共享协议/工具。该项目的成功完成将使社会受益，因为它将通过开发和传播新的工具和协议来支持使用WWS监测SARS-CoV-2和其他病原体(包括那些能够导致未来大流行的病原体)的广大从业者社区。对社会的其他好处将通过劳动力发展来实现，包括指导圣母大学和霍华德大学的两名博士后研究员。在美国新冠肺炎大流行期间，废水监测的早期成功应用导致了国家废水监测系统的建立。尽管WWS的使用为SARS-CoV-2的传播和传播提供了关键数据和有价值的见解，但仍有许多工作要做，以便能够通过对社区污水监测项目期间收集的数据进行分析，进行定量估计、预测和可操作的公共卫生建议。这个NSF研究协调网络(RCN)将解决这些关键的知识差距。RCN建立在之前NSF EIGER奖的基础上，该奖项建立了来自学术界、政府机构、非政府组织和工业界的WWS研究人员和从业人员网络。新的RCN将通过实施五项协同活动来推进其研究、教育和劳动力发展目标，包括1)每月研讨会系列，2)季度专题研讨会，3)开发社区主导的关于WWS科学状况的‘Wiki’，4)年度废水监测培训训练营，以及5)与研究人员、从业人员和公共卫生决策者举行的年度虚拟RCN会议。通过这一奖项，RCN调查人员及其合作伙伴将促进和促进研究人员、从业人员、公共卫生政策和决策者之间的合作和沟通，以推进下一代WWS对大流行的准备和预防。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。

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remains an urgent national and global threat to public health. Wastewater surveillance (WWS) has emerged as a versatile and complementary platform to existing clinical tools for monitoring and tracking the spread and transmission of COVID-19 in communities. The basic premise of WSS is that the detection and quantification of microbial and viral biomarkers extracted from samples of untreated wastewater can be used to monitor the onset, spread and community transmission of infectious pathogens such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants. The overarching goal of this Research Coordination Network (RCN) is to support the large community of practitioners and stakeholders that employ WWS as a public health monitoring tool. To advance this goal, the core investigators of this RCN and their national/international partners will integrate their expertise and leverage their resources to address critical knowledge gaps and needs in WSS including improved analytical and sampling methods and more effective collaboration, communication and information sharing protocols/tools among researchers, practitioners, and public health stakeholders. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the development and dissemination of new tools and protocols to support the large community of practitioners that employ WWS to monitor SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, including those capable of causing future pandemics. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through workforce development including the mentoring of two post-doctoral research fellows at the University of Notre Dame and Howard University. Early success in the use of wastewater surveillance (WSS) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has led to the establishment of a National Wastewater Surveillance System. Although the use of WWS has provided critical data and valuable insight into the spread and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, much work remains to be done to enable quantitative estimates, predictions, and actionable public health recommendations from the analysis of the data collected during a community wastewater surveillance program. This NSF Research Coordination Network (RCN) will address these critical knowledge gaps. The RCN builds upon the accomplishments of a previous NSF EAGER award that established a network of WWS researchers and practitioners from academia, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry. The new RCN will advance its research, education, and workforce development goals through the implementation of five synergistic activities including 1) Monthly seminar series, 2) Quarterly topical workshops, 3) Development of a community-led ‘Wiki’ on the state of the science of WWS, 4) Annual wastewater surveillance training bootcamp, and 5) Annual virtual RCN conference with researchers, practitioners, and public health decision-makers. Through this award, the RCN investigators and their partners will facilitate and promote collaboration and communication among researchers, practitioners, and public health policy and decision-makers to advance next generation WWS for pandemic preparedness and prevention.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.