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No sh*t. Sudbury scientists get funding to analyze your crap

Federal grant will allow sewage to be examined for evidence of COVID-19 
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Ramsey Lake

Two Sudbury scientists have been awarded a federal grant to do a study of wastewater in Greater Sudbury to determine the level of COVID-19 virus within the general population. 

The grant was awarded by NSERC (National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada).  It is starting off as a one-year project with a grant of $50,000 to cover the base cost of the research. 

The research is a collaboration between Dr. Thomas Merritt of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Laurentian University, Dr. Gustavo Ybazeta of Health Sciences North Research Institute and the City of Greater Sudbury. 

Merritt said additional funding is being applied for at the federal level that could allow for the hiring of a couple of staff persons for collecting and recording raw sewage samples.

Merritt said what he likes about the project is that it is bringing together the efforts of fundamental research science with applied science to ask important questions and get the vital answers. Merritt said the idea for the study originated with Dr. Ybazeta. 

"What Gustavo was looking at was the COVID-19 pandemic, and then thinking of the kind of work he does and that I do and the things that we have talked about doing in collaboration," Merritt explained.

HSNRI scientist Ybazeta said the idea is not completely new. 

"You know many groups working in different parts of the world have had very similar ideas," said Ybazeta. 

"What we want to do is use specific technology, new technology for genetic sequencing to detect this fingerprinting in the big mix of all the viruses and material that are in the sewage," said Ybazeta.

The purpose of using wastewater is to give an early indication of the virus which has an unusual characteristic of not always showing that a person is sick. 

"One of the big issues with this pandemic is the unknown that surrounds how broad the infection is," Merritt said. He added the more testing that is done, the more that is learned. 

"Because a substantial number of the people that have the COVID-19 virus are asymptomatic, they show no symptoms.  And that is problematic because they can in fact infect other people," said Merritt. 

"If you're asymptomatic and you infect somebody else, then the consequences can be devastating."

He said the idea is to search for the viral DNA, which Merritt said was an RNA (ribonucleic acid) genome.

"You're looking for the genetic material in that virus."

Merritt said persons who have the viral RNA will breathe it out, cough it out and sneeze it out. 

"Apparently it also goes out in our waste material. And so it gets flushed down the toilet," he said.

Merritt said the plan is to work with Great Sudbury wastewater management employees to collect raw samples from a centralized location. 

"Then we can use the DNA sequencing technology that Gustavo has been using in his lab in the last few years to look for the really small but bare genetic evidence of the virus." 

From that, said Merritt, one could determine an approximate number or percentage of the population that was carrying the virus. 

Merritt said the technology is non-invasive in that it does not identify specific persons, but instead tests an entire population. He said the technology was exciting because it provides crucial information of a virus without having to find the individual.

"The downside is that it is still a technology that is being developed. So with the quantitative PCR test -- the standard COVID-19 test -- we know exactly how the test works and we know roughly how accurate that test is. With using direct sequencing looking for this genetic fingerprint, one of the things we will be looking at is how effective is this method in identifying the virus in the population," Merritt explained. 

"Potentially it would be a low cost, high speed way to sample an entire area instead of going by individual by individual by individual." 

Merritt said part of the project is to identify where the new found expertise can be applied. 

"Once we have an idea of whether the technique works and how sensitive the technique is, we can then apply that where ever." 

By example, Merritt said the project could develop a procedure and technology that could be applied in remote communities to determine the presence or absence of the virus.

"It can be an early indicator that says this community is in jeopardy. We need to do something," he said.

Ybazeta remarked that he is confident the technology will work.

"We know by other technologies that viruses are present in sewage," said Ybazeta.

He said that using advanced technology that has been available in recent years "there is a very good possibility to detect" the signature of the COVID-19 virus. 


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Len Gillis, local journalism initiative reporter

About the Author: Len Gillis, local journalism initiative reporter

Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com covering health care in northeastern Ontario and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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