Virus Track

Wensi Chen Zeou Dou Eric Mei

Wastewater surveillance testing is an emerging epidemiological tool to monitor municipal sewage for traces of infectious pathogens, like Covid-19, in entire communities. Through wastewater testing, researchers can confirm whether a viral pathogen is present in the population and whether transmission is increasing or declining.

A limiting factor is that this process requires refrigeration for virus sample handling, so the high-cost cold chain processes greatly limit the implementation of large-scale virus surveillance.

The VirusTrack team, comprised of environmental engineering PhD candidates Wensi Chen and Zeou Dou and undergraduate student Eric Mei, created a sampling and storage technology that doesn’t require refrigeration.

Through their low-cost and reliable solution, packed viruses can be stabilized and preserved for a prolonged period at room temperature before extraction for testing, which could help to facilitate and expand the coverage of the surveillance network.