This project aims to develop a new wastewater sensing and inference system for real-time public health management and early-warning sensing and inference systems.
- Dates15 Nov 2023 to 31 Nov 2028
- SponsorThe Leverhulme Trust
- Funded£1.9²Ñ
- PartnersMIT, University of Queensland, Severn Trent Water and Home Office
The project will develop:
- a generic sample processing technology for enriching and processing wastewater and other environmental samples;
- a class of new, ultra-sensitive, and low-cost sensing platforms to identify microbial and chemical pollutants for public health assessment;
- an inverse inference mathematical model for tracking the source.
The novel simple, accessible, and low-cost novel sensing technologies (e.g., paper-based devices) will allow rapid wastewater surveillance, enabling extensive high-resolution wastewater datasets to be captured.
Progress update
The early development has successfully demonstrated field testing for virus detection in wastewater at a quarantine hotel in London. The methodology shows potential for real-time monitoring and could be instrumental in detecting infectious disease outbreaks in high-risk settings.
