# Wastewater Detection of COVID-19

> **NIH NIH U01** · MISSOURI STATE DEPT/ HEALTH & SENIOR SRV · 2022 · $1,962,927

## Abstract

When faced with a pandemic such as SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SAR-CoV-2), the virus responsible for COVID-19,
timely risk assessment and action are required to prevent public health impacts to entire communities.
Because infected individuals may not have access to testing or may be asymptomatic and contraction can
mean death, a proactive approach to detect the virus is needed to develop public health strategy to mitigate
virus spread. Recent studies have detected SAR-CoV-2 genetic material in sewage and demonstrate a
positive correlation between the concentration of viral markers and reported cases1-5. The Coronavirus
Sewershed Surveillance Project (CSSP) is a collaborative effort to monitor sewersheds for genetic indicators of
COVID-19 in wastewater to provide additional, population-level information about virus circulation that is not
captured by clinical testing. Untreated wastewater (influent) samples are screened weekly from select
sewersheds and targeted micro-sewersheds for detection and “true” prevalence. Congregate facilities provide
unique opportunities for study because they are controlled populations where the precise number and timing of
infections can be defined. Our team will utilize detailed monitoring of congregate facilities to define the precise
per patient contribution and longevity of SARS-COV-2 RNA to wastewater by 1) increasing the number of
facilities tested, 2) altering the frequency at which samples are collected, and 3) comparing sewershed data
collected to clinical patient case data.
Although SARS-COV-2 contribution/patient varies among communities, there have been clear outlier
communities that produce little or no genetic material in the wastewater despite the presence of known
outbreaks. The reason for this lost signal is not known, so our team will define factors that contribute to SARS-
COV-2 signal suppression in wastewater by 1) defining the physical nature of the genetic material in the
sewershed to better understand the types of factors that could suppress signal, 2) expanding testing within
sewersheds with suppressed signal as well as from additional facilities with similar population and industry
demographics as those with suppressed signal to narrow the sources of signal suppression, 3) performing
exhaustive chemical characterization comparing wastewater from locations that are suppressed to those that
are not to identify candidate compounds that could be causing suppression, and 4) obtaining or generating
candidate inhibitors and test their ability to suppress signal from viral genetic material in a controlled
experimental setting.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10377352
- **Project number:** 4U01DA053893-02
- **Recipient organization:** MISSOURI STATE DEPT/ HEALTH & SENIOR SRV
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeff Wenzel
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,962,927
- **Award type:** 4N
- **Project period:** 2021-01-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10377352

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10377352, Wastewater Detection of COVID-19 (4U01DA053893-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10377352. Licensed CC0.

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