One man’s waste in another man’s treasure: using wastewater to monitor infectious diseases

In this episode of Talking Techniques, we talk to Andrew Lee, a senior research fellow in Queen’s University Belfast’s (UK) wastewater-based epidemiology group, about his work using wastewater to monitor and detect infectious diseases. Andrew discusses how wastewater surveillance acts as an early warning system, providing novel, unbiased insights into human and animal pathogens that are circulating within a community, and how this can contribute to a ‘One Health’ approach. He also explains how he has incorporated nanopore sequencing into his work, and the advantages that this provides.

Contents:

· 00:00­–01:45: Introductions

· 01:45–03:45: Wastewater surveillance for infectious disease

· 03:45–05:35: Genomic surveillance approaches can complement established epidemiological methods

· 05:35–07:25: Why look at wastewater?

· 07:25–10:40: The advantages of nanopore sequencing for wastewater surveillance

· 10:40–12:25: The experimental workflow

· 12:25–15:05: Using wastewater surveillance to detect both human and avian influenza

· 15:05–18:20: Wastewater surveillance as an early warning system

· 18:20–20:47: Future perspectives: other environmental samples, antimicrobial resistance and what else can be found in wastewater?

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