A team of researchers are studying city sewer systems nationwide looking for COVID-19 and Great Falls is participating in the study.

BioBot, which studies wastewater epidemiology, has teamed with researchers at MIT, Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has launched a pro bono program to map COVID-19 by using samples from sewage.

According to BioBot, new studies show that the virus is shed in stool so it’s collecting in city sewers.

“We are establishing protocols to test sewage for SARS-CoV-2. If successful, this data will give communities a dynamic map of the virus as it spreads to new places,” according to the company.

Paul Skubinna, the city’s environmental division manager, said the city has collected samples on three days, April 6, 13 and 20 from six sites within the city’s sewer system.

The city received results from the April 6 and 13 samples and received the April 20 results on April 30.

The results for all three sets of samples “indicated genetic fragments of the virus were not detected in our sanitary sewer collection system or the city’s treated effluent to the Missouri River,” Skubinna said. “This is cutting-edge science so we are still evaluating the precision and accuracy of the data, how Biobot’s model uses the data to predict infection rate, and what the results mean for managing the city’s response to the pandemic. At this time, the take-away is that this type of analysis of sanitary sewer waste might be an important source of data and information during these types of situations.”

Skubinna found out about the study in early March and got in touch with BioBot directly.

“I thought, hmm, this could be interesting,” so he signed up for the city to participate and was quick enough to be accepted, he said.

The company is doing the work initially pro bono, cities only pay for shipping the samples, and said they’re doing “a tremendous amount of work.”

The researchers look at population, flow information and the counts of virus samples in their models and use data from the research into how much of the virus is shed in fecal matter, Skubinna said.

The science is still being refined as is the types of conclusions that can be drawn from the data, he said, but “I think the data is important.”

In Great Falls, so far, the results appear to be indicating and confirming that the infection rate has been low, Skubinna said.

He joins a Zoom call with other participating cities and researchers every Friday and said there are usually 70-80 people on the call, including representatives from hard hit areas such as New Jersey.

“It’s amazing to see the faces of the people dealing with this,” Skubinna said. “It’s serious, you can see it on their faces.”

Skubinna said the project was initially planned as five weeks of sampling and the city is now in week four. There is some discussion about continuing the project into May and June, he said, but that may come with a financial cost for the city so those details are being considered.

In listening to the discussions on those calls, Skubinna said the data from the sewer testing is showing an order of magnitude higher infection rate that what’s been confirmed by testing, though it’s not precise data or conclusions this early in the research.

“It’s cutting edge science, so the models and data are still being refined,” he said. “It’s just good information and it’s another source of information to help manage the situation.”

The City of Great Falls is currently used the data from the BioBot study, along with other verified sources of information to manage the city’s COVID-19 response, Skubinna said, with “an abundance of caution for the citizens health and safety, protection of our environment and water resources, and with the interest of opening Great Falls up for business as soon as possible in a safe manner.”

According to BioBot, data from the sewage will help communities:

• Measure the scope of the outbreak, independent from patient testing or hospital reporting, and include date on asymptomatic individuals;
• Provide decision support for officials determining the timing and severity of public health interventions to mitigate the overall spread of the disease;
• Better anticipate likely impact on hospital capacity in order to inform hospital readiness and the necessity of public health interventions;
• Track the effectiveness of interventions and measure the wind-down period of the outbreak, and;
• Provide an early warning for reemergence of the coronavirus (if it does indeed have a seasonal cycle).

BioBot was founded by a biologist and an architect.

The CEO and cofounder, Dr. Mariana Matus, was inspired to start wastewater epidemiology research as a first-year doctoral student at MIT so that she could apply her technical skills to improve public health, according to BioBot’s website.

With support of her professors, her research grew into the MIT Underworlds Project and was joined by Newsha Ghaeli, now BioBot’s president and cofounder.

Ghaeli is an urban studies researcher and had an interest in how new technologies can improve cities and urban life, according to the company.

The two led the project for three years and now lead BioBot.