Wastewater COVID detector still on the case
From a startup founded by MIT graduates and faculty, Cambridge-based Biobot Analytics has emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic’s preeminent predictive player, with reports documenting viral threat levels based on wastewater analysis.
And now that company’s already extensive footprint in the field is expanding.
Biobot announced last week that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended for six months its partnership through the National Wastewater Surveillance System to bring COVID-19 and mpox (formerly monkeypox) wastewater analysis to communities across the country.
It’s only fitting that Biobot, the first company in the U.S. to demonstrate it was possible to gauge levels of coronavirus activity by screening raw sewage, would receive this vote of confidence from the CDC.
Recognizing the value of collecting this type of data during the pandemic, the CDC initiated the National Wastewater Surveillance System in September 2020.
According to Amy Kirby, the NWSS program director, estimates suggest that from 40% to 80% of those with COVID-19 shed viral RNA in wastewater and sewage, which presents an opportunity for monitoring the spread of infection.
Kirby called it “the latest public health tool that’s providing critical information on COVID-19 trends, as well as giving us a glimpse into a new frontier of infectious disease surveillance in the U. S.”
She praised the science, which thanks to Biobot, got its start in Massachusetts.
“What started as a grassroots effort by academic researchers and wastewater utilities has quickly become a nationwide surveillance system with more than 34,000 samples collected, representing approximately 53 million Americans,” she said.
As an integral part of the NWSS, Biobot contributes data from more than 400 locations in more than 250 counties across the country, providing coverage for 60 million people. Biobot tests each location for the viruses that cause mpox and COVID-19, and conducts genomic sequencing to identify COVID-19 variants.
“We’re excited to continue our partnership with CDC and lay the groundwork for future program expansion into other infectious diseases and beyond,” said Newsha Ghaeli, Biobot president & cofounder.
Locally, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has partnered with Biobot to test sewage for signs of the coronavirus.
In June 2020, the MWRA board approved a six-month, $200,000 pilot contract with Biobot to collect and test samples of wastewater arriving at two intakes at its Deer Island Treatment Plant, and to conduct rapid analysis for any trace of the virus that causes COVID-19.
The company’s data indicated the virus’ spread showed up in wastewater about a week before testing sites and hospitals began seeing increases in sick patients.
Those samples were used to establish a baseline for Greater Boston communities that sent wastewater to Deer Island.
And that body of evidence convinced Billerica’s Middlesex Jail and House of Correction in May 2021 to become the first county correctional facility in the nation to partner with Biobot to monitor and identify COVID-19’S presence in the facility’s wastewater.
More recently, through the Duck Island Clean Water Facility, the city of Lowell is now one of those reporting communities.
Run by the Lowell Regional Water Authority, it treats sewage flow from Lowell, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tewksbury and Tyngsboro.
Biobot provides wastewater reports to Lowell’s Board of Health, which operates under the Department of Health & Human Services.
The Lowell-biobot partnership resulted from a motion in May by City Councilor Corey Robinson, who requested that City Manager Tom Golden have the health department provide wastewater surveillance for COVID and other health-related conditions.
Prior to that, the city wasn’t tracking COVID via wastewater analysis.
Lowell was selected to participate at no cost in the
NWSS program, which correlates the wastewater sampling to reported cases, as well as many other demographic indicators such as age, gender, race and neighborhood.
With the decline in COVID reporting data due to the popularity of rapid tests conducted in private settings, wastewater sampling pioneered by Biobot Analytics has emerged as our premier Covid-detection sentinel.
Thankfully, the CDC, through its National Wastewater Surveillance System, also recognizes the unique detection role that Biobot continues to play.