# Harmonizing Wastewater Generated Drug Consumption Trends with Epidemiological Indicators in NDEWS

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2023 · $501,342

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Nearly 1 million individuals have died from drug overdoses over the past two decades with the most recent
mortality surges associated with opioids, namely fentanyl. Surveillance programs are critical to understanding
community drug trends, yet traditional methods (e.g. surveys) are not designed to inform on such trends as they
are emerging. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an innovative approach that can identify community
drug use patterns as they change and shift in near real-time, data that is critical to developing effective public
health responses. Community-level drug trends have been successfully generated from wastewater for
substances of current concern (e.g., fentanyl); however, implementation of WBE as a holistic framework that
contributes reliable, consistent, and trusted data to stakeholders is urgently needed. Several notable gaps within
this framework include the need for advanced wastewater sampling strategies, rapid and accurate identification
of emergent and/or novel drugs, and integration of wastewater traditional surveillance data. Therefore, the overall
objective of this proposal is to enhance the utility of WBE as an early warning system to effectively drive public
health measures in impacted communities. This will be accomplished through two comprehensive specific aims
that include: (1) the generation of optimal sampling regimes by considering time, granularity, frequency and the
detection of new psychoactive substances as they emerge, (2) harmonization of WBE and existing epidemiologic
data for analysis, interpretation, and timely dissemination through customized visualization tools. This research
will be an extension of a recently completed pilot study of wastewater surveillance of fentanyl in four United
States cities. Comprised of a diverse team of researchers and community partners, GatorWATCHTM has secured
the required multidisciplinary expertise that has already shown success. Furthermore, integration with the
National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) Coordinating Center will afford us an expansive network for WBE
expansion and dissemination of our results. Collectively, through advancing drug measurement methodology in
tandem with sophisticated data harmonization will provide a blueprint for expansion and use of WBE as an
integral part of public health interventions in the fight against contemporary and emerging drug use epidemics in
our communities nationwide.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10885405
- **Project number:** 3U01DA051126-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Linda B. Cottler
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $501,342
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10885405

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10885405, Harmonizing Wastewater Generated Drug Consumption Trends with Epidemiological Indicators in NDEWS (3U01DA051126-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10885405. Licensed CC0.

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