SBIR Phase I: A Versatile Nucleic Acid Collection and Purification Technology for Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to provide private and public stakeholders with new technological tools to better monitor and predict pandemics. This project is expected to modernize the tools used today by private and public laboratories to collect and purify pathogens, particularly human coronaviruses from community wastewater, for testing and diagnostic purposes. The new technological tools are expected to simplify the workflow, reduce costs and time, and enable the prediction of COVID-19 outbreaks and other pandemics several weeks before observing clinical cases. Such early prediction would provide the public and government agencies with important data and sufficient time to take preventive measures. The technological products of this project are expected to empower the growing number of companies and laboratories offering wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) services and help establish WBE as a routine, cost-effective and reliable tool for public health monitoring. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will address a major technological barrier for the detection of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Commercially available nucleic acid collection and purification kits are designed for clinical samples with small volumes. These kits are not generally used for large wastewater volumes where the virus is present at low concentrations. As a result, current processes are time-consuming, and result in the recovery of less than 30% of viruses and nucleic acids, significantly reducing the sensitivity. The goal of this SBIR Phase I project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel virus and nucleic acid collection and purification technology from wastewater. Specifically, the project tasks aim at enhancing understanding of virus properties, particularly human coronaviruses in wastewater and their interactions with filter media. The project's innovative approach is to design a streamlined workflow that includes all the steps from sample collection to detection, in a single disposable cartridge containing novel filters with high affinity to viruses. This development is expected to enhance viral and nucleic acid recovery in wastewater to over 90%, while reducing costs. The developed tools will be independently tested and evaluated by third-party laboratories to confirm their performance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.