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Exclusive 2024 Microbes in Wastewater Symposium Video Highlights

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Prediciting pandemics: What cholera has taught us about Covid-19

Microbes in Wastewater: Molecular Approaches in Pathogen & AMR Surveillance, Laguna Beach, California. January 18, 2024

Rita R. Colwell, Ph.D, D.Sc. Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland College Park

Video Summary:

The talk focuses on the relationship between Vibrio cholerae and environmental factors, particularly how these contribute to cholera outbreaks. Key speaker, Dr. Rita Colwell discusses her work on cholera, emphasizing the role of zooplankton in the bacterium's lifecycle. Cholera is a global disease, with outbreaks often triggered by environmental changes. Dr. Colwell's research includes using satellite data to predict cholera outbreaks based on factors like sea surface temperature, chlorophyll levels, and population movements.

She mentions a notable application of her work in Yemen during 2017-2018, where predictive modeling helped locate areas of high cholera risk, allowing for preemptive medical interventions. This approach, involving satellite sensors and metagenomic data, has significantly improved cholera outbreak predictions and has been applied to other countries like Ethiopia and Malawi. Dr. Colwell's work highlights the integration of environmental data, technology, and public health to mitigate the impact of pandemics like cholera.

Predicting Pandemics: Lessons from Cholera for Understanding Covid-19

The talk focuses on the relationship between Vibrio cholerae and environmental factors, particularly how these contribute to cholera outbreaks. Key speaker, Dr. Rita Colwell discusses her work on cholera, emphasizing the role of zooplankton in the bacterium's lifecycle. Cholera is a global disease, with outbreaks often triggered by environmental changes. Dr. Colwell's research includes using satellite data to predict cholera outbreaks based on factors like sea surface temperature, chlorophyll levels, and population movements. She mentions a notable application of her work in Yemen during 2017-2018, where predictive modeling helped locate areas of high cholera risk, allowing for preemptive medical interventions. This approach, involving satellite sensors and metagenomic data, has significantly improved cholera outbreak predictions and has been applied to other countries like Ethiopia and Malawi. Dr. Colwell's work highlights the integration of environmental data, technology, and public health to mitigate the impact of pandemics like cholera.

Dr. Rita Colwell, Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland; Founder, CosmosID, Inc.

Promise and Limitations of Integrated Metagenomics-Based Surveillance of Pathogens and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

The talk discusses a presentation by Dr. Amy Pruden on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its connection to wastewater treatment. Dr. Pruden, an environmental scientist, focuses on the role of water systems in managing pathogens and antibiotic resistance. She highlights the urgency of AMR, comparing its global death toll to the COVID-19 pandemic, and emphasizes the need for effective surveillance, particularly through wastewater-based monitoring. Dr. Pruden details a study funded by the Water Research Foundation to monitor AMR in wastewater, highlighting the challenges of selecting appropriate monitoring targets. She explains different methods, including culture, qPCR, and metagenomic sequencing, with a focus on metagenomics for its comprehensive data on antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements like plasmids. The study found differences in AMR levels across countries, influenced by factors like prescription practices. She also discusses how wastewater treatment plants can both reduce and disseminate AMR, and introduces tools like MetaCompare, which assesses metagenomic data to evaluate the risk of resistance spreading through treated water. Dr. Pruden concludes by stressing the importance of continuous monitoring and the development of better databases for tracking AMR in the environment.

Dr. Amy Pruden, Distinguished Professor, Virginia Tech

From Phage Hunting to COVID Variant Sequencing in Southern California Wastewater

Dr. Katrine Whiteson from UC Irvine presented her team's research on wastewater sequencing, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. She credited Jason Rothman and his team for their efforts in this shift from their usual focus on the human microbiome to wastewater. The team used sewage samples to hunt for phages, which are viruses that infect bacteria, with the aim of finding alternatives to antibiotics. They had success in identifying phages that target specific pathogens, even from older sewage samples. During the pandemic, they expanded their research to include RNA sequencing of wastewater to track the presence of viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. They collected samples from eight wastewater treatment plants in Southern California, representing 16 million people. Despite the challenges, such as pasteurizing samples at 70°C, they successfully sequenced RNA and detected various viruses, including tomato viruses which were unexpectedly the most abundant. The team employed both direct RNA sequencing and enrichment methods, including the Illumina respiratory virus panel and Arctic primers, to enhance their analysis. They discovered a high diversity of viral variants, some of which were detected in wastewater before being identified in clinical samples. Whiteson emphasized the importance of considering data that doesn't match existing databases, as there is still much "dark matter" in genomic sequencing, with many unknowns in both human and environmental samples. Whiteson concluded by encouraging researchers to explore larger databases and use K-mer analysis to better classify unknown sequences. She also highlighted ongoing efforts to improve standards in microbiome research, mentioning collaborations between various organizations to advance the field.

Dr. Katrine Whiteson, Professor, University of California Irvine