San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
CORONAVIRUS
sources Science and Technology, Smyth’s lab would test wastewater from the four treatment plants in San Antonio for the coronavirus and any new variants that may evolve.
Untreated wastewater contains a myriad of harmful bacteria — such as E. coli and salmonella — and viruses, including the coronavirus. Testing such water can provide early warning signs of new strains of the coronavirus before an outbreak.
“When the virus first hit, we all focused on the people specifically,” Smyth said. “Wastewater took time to develop. But imagine, instead of testing one person to check for variants, you’re testing thousands all at once through a wastewater sample.”
Given such warning, the city of San Antonio could quarantine specific areas, such as hospitals, apartment complexes or neighborhoods, before a new strain gets out of control.
“This has a lot of potential,” Smyth said. “And we can be better prepared for the next pandemic.”
The DNA of a spike
Before Smyth moved to San Antonio, she conducted similar work at the New School in New York. In May 2020, nearly five months into the pandemic, a few scientists at City University of New York approached Smyth about doing work with them on wastewater and COVID-19 along with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
Smyth jumped on the project, which involved conducting DNA sequencing analysis on the coronavirus, specifically the spike, which is the part of the virus that evolves into new variants.
Every day for months, the team analyzed wastewater from New York City wastewater treatment plants, and over time, they observed differences in the DNA repeatedly present in specific
areas of the city, Smyth said.
She and the others saw the omicron variant in their results two weeks before clinical health
teams who sequence the DNA of viruses in people were able to detect omicron in New Yorkers.
“Omicron was located in wastewater in South Africa first, so those scientists let the world know what they found,” Smyth said. “After that, we started looking specifically for omicron in New York wastewater, and when we thought we found it, we reported it to the city early on.”
Now, in San Antonio, Smyth will be conducting the same work — this time with students.
Walter Den, a professor with the A&M-San Antonio Institute for Water Resources Science and Technology, is having preliminary discussions with SAWS to gain access to wastewater samples from the four treatment plants on the South Side. The samples would be collected at the plants and certain spots along sewer lines, then sent to Smyth and her team at the microbiology lab for testing.
Sewage sampling locations could include the San Antonio Zoo, because the coronavirus can be found in animals, as well as hospitals and university dorms, where the virus spreads quickly.
A&M-San Antonio is working to sign agreements with SAWS, Den said.
“As soon as that happens,” he said, “we’re hoping to get the samples as fast as possible.”
A SAWS spokeswoman said the utility has also been approached by other universities about sampling wastewater.
Analyzing the samples begins with filtering out the viruses in the wastewater from the bacteria and solid waste found in the sewer. Filters with holes as small as 0.2 microns in diameter — a strand of hair is 70 microns — separate the water.
Once the coronavirus’ spike RNA is converted to DNA, it is isolated and sequenced. On Smyth’s computer, the professor can pull up the DNA sequence to check for variances.
The goal is analyze 20 wastewater samples a week.
“In New York, it was just myself in my lab for the most part,” Smyth said. “If I get enough students helping me, we could get some real work done here.”
Water and communities
It’s important to Smyth that students learn in the lab and the community.
The student body at A&M-San Antonio is more than 50 percent female and 72 percent Hispanic, and nearly 80 percent of students are the first in their families to attend college. Of the nearly 7,000 students enrolled at the university in fall 2021, 78 percent were from Bexar County.
That makeup of the student body was part of what drew Smyth to San Antonio from New York City. Another reason was the community’s concern for its water resources.
“San Antonio is such a unique city because of its relationship with water and the aquifer,” said Smyth, who hopes to train many students to work in epidemiology and with wastewater in environmental protection labs. “They can be out in their own communities and helping their own city.”
When another pandemic hits the United States, which experts say is likely, cities and the country overall need to be more prepared than before, Smyth said.
“You learn science and you learn research by doing science and doing research,” she said. “Students here are learning and doing the research at the same time. The bottom line is training students for a future in water and microbiology. It’s an opportunity.”