Widespread national wastewater surveillance started in 2020, as part of the pandemic response for COVID-19, making sewer systems a valuable source for public health data. Wastewater surveillance can detect outbreaks before symptoms begin, track trends in infections, and locate hotspots of infection. Every day as more data are collected, researchers advance and expand current techniques and develop new tools to utilize wastewater data. 

 

CIDMATH’s Wastewater Epidemiology team uses wastewater data to advance the science of modeling and forecasting for public health preparedness and response. The team is led by Dr. Katia Koelle and builds upon Dr. Marlene Wolfe’s leadership as a Program Director of Wastewater SCAN, a national wastewater monitoring system that informs public health responses, along with Dr. Andrew Wang’s work on spatial mapping of sewer networks and Dr. Anne Piantadosi’s expertise in sample sequencing. 

Projects

Shedding Hub

Led by Dr. Andrew Wang, the Shedding Hub is an open science portal that collects shedding and modeling data into one easy, publicly accessible resource. Hosted on GitHub, the Shedding Hub compiles, standardizes, and validates data from published literature on wastewater shedding. All data and code created by the Shedding Hub team are open access for anyone to use for their own research projects.  

Learn More: https://shedding-hub.github.io/   

Access Data: https://github.com/shedding-hub  

 

Wastewater Sample Sequencing

The wastewater team led by Dr. Anne Piantadosi is analyzing banked samples from Wastewater SCAN and the Georgia Department of Public Health. This analysis provides insights into infectious disease signals present in wastewater, which informs disease modeling efforts and contributes to more accurate predictions.  

 

Machine Learning for Forecasting

Researchers are leveraging machine learning techniques and combining wastewater data with other surveillance data streams to improve the ability to generate real-time estimates of disease spread and enhance forecasting methods.  

TEAM

Anne Piantadosi, MD/PhD

Anne Piantadosi, MD/PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Co-Investigator, CIDMATH

anne.piantadosi@emory.eduContact
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AvIAMJYAAAAJPublication Link
https://vaccines.emory.edu/faculty/primary-faculty/piantadosi-anne.htmlEmory Profile
Marlene Wolfe, PhD

Marlene Wolfe, PhD

Assistant Professor, Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Co-Investigator, CIDMATH

marlene.wolfe@emory.eduContact
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0xI461gAAAAJPublication Link
https://sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?FID=marlene-wolfe-12814Emory Profile
Katia Koelle, PhD

Katia Koelle, PhD

Professor, Department of Biology, Emory University College of Arts and Sciences, Co-Principal Investigator, CIDMATH

katia.koelle@emory.eduContact
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6uMrbtgAAAAJPublication Link
https://biology.emory.edu/home/people/bios/faculty/koelle-katia.htmlEmory Profile
Max Lau, PhD

Max Lau, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Co-Investigator, CIDMATH

msy.lau@emory.eduContact
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fpIn-ZgAAAAJPublication Link
https://sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?FID=max-lau-10935Emory Profile