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In 2020, , MD, and , PhD, secured their first federal grant to support wastewater monitoring for COVID-19. In the six years since, their team has expanded their wastewater-monitoring program across the province, targeting dozens of new bacteria, viruses and chemicals, including drugs, establishing themselves as national leaders in real-time monitoring for public health. 

“With each unfolding year, you realize how much potential this sort of technology has,” says Hubert, BSc'98, PhD'04, professor in the University of Calgary's . “First, it was the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Then the team said, what about other viruses? What about other pathogens? What about neighbourhoods or shelters? What about First Nations communities? This technology has the potential to deliver on any target and any scale.”

Parkins, Hubert and collaborators from across UCalgary received $4 million from the (CFI) Innovation Fund to upgrade equipment that will help them expand their research to include additional, more challenging monitoring targets, and in turn generate and mobilize real-time data faster. This data will then be used for evidence-informed decision-making by health-care providers and citizens, alike.

Creating an integrated 'living laboratory' wastewater network

Wastewater contains a wealth of information about contributing populations. Like a blood test to understand a human body, wastewater can be sampled and analyzed to understand population health with minimal intrusion and expense.  

Wastewater monitoring is a powerful platform, and what excites Parkins and Hubert is a vision to create actionable tools that will enable maximum public health impact, lowering health-care costs and saving lives. They want to create an integrated “living laboratory,” where researchers communicate real-time data to community, health care or industry partners. 

Currently, data is shared via a series of secure web portals, but the team envisions secure apps, allowing information to be shared more broadly and to allow community observations to be reported directly back to the research team. 

Albertans may be familiar with one of the team’s real-time dashboard, the , which the research group continues to operate in collaboration with UCalgary’s and A. The apps will be an extension of this type of dashboard, but with more granular data that can be used to tailor interventions to specific scenarios. 

These apps are a year or two away, but Hubert and Parkins see this actionable data as key to integrating wastewater monitoring into the public health system. 

Using wastewater data to address antimicrobial resistance

Integrating wastewater data into clinical practice could be transformative in the fight against deadly drug-resistant viruses and bacteria. These represent a growing public-health threat in Canada, with patients infected by antimicrobial-resistant pathogens experiencing disproportionately higher rates of harm and death.

“We have several years of biweekly wastewater samples from hospitals and communities that we've analyzed for antibiotic-resistant genes,” explains Parkins, BSc'98, MSc'00, MD'03, a professor in the . “You can see the direct correlation between the antimicrobials prescribed in hospitals and an increase in the related antibiotic-resistant genes. We can now leverage that baseline data to evaluate how effective interventions will be at reducing the antibiotic-resistant gene burden and, in turn, reduce risk of resistant infections.”

Generating meaningful change at the heart of dedication to the work

In the six years since they began, Parkins and Hubert have seen the power of wastewater data in public health decision making. 

“This generates meaningful change that happens right away,” says Parkins. “So much of the health sciences research that we do is theoretical and might lead to change 10 years from now. The benefit of this technology happens tomorrow, and the next day. And that is gratifying to see.”&˛Ô˛ú˛ő±č;

The team sees strong potential for the wastewater tools developed in this work to be integrated at a national level, leading to improved population health for Canadians. To help achieve that, the team focused on investing in industry-leading equipment and techniques that can be adopted elsewhere. 

“What we want to convey to other public health systems is that you don't need to spend that much to get a program up and running," says Hubert. "Everything we develop is easily adaptable at other sites because this technology exists across the country. It’s a cost-effective model. 

"The innovation that occurs in Calgary won't be confined to what we do here.”&˛Ô˛ú˛ő±č;