Thread by @svscarpino

Prof. "Pinto (@watermicrobe) and his team are testing wastewater samples [for] #COVID19 ..., which can help city officials have a more targeted approach to managing the virus. Where are the clusters? And do we need to ramp up testing in certain areas?" news.northeastern.edu/2020/09/15/are…

Prof. Pinto and his team have partnered with @SomervilleCity because, quoting Mayor @JoeCurtatone, “Adding wastewater testing to our COVID-19 interventions is like adding a smoke alarm to your house. It provides a warning before the problem gets out of control.”

As we saw recently, The Univ. of Arizona detected cases in a dorm using wastewater surveillance and then followed-up with traditional testing to identify two asymptomatic cases likely *before* they transmitted. washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08…

The team I coordinate @NUnetsi is building machine learning tools to identify #COVID19 in high-throughput, minimally processed wastewater samples. This work is led by our stellar graduate student Wan He and is based on research we started with @TheWill for the CDC back in 2017.

Although "Right now, this project is underway in Massachusetts. But Pinto’s and Scarpino’s long term goal is to apply these same wastewater sample methods to more vulnerable populations such as refugee camps and informal settlements."

This fantastic piece was written by @EmilyArntsen who is one of the all star journalists working for News @Northeastern. They have done an incredible job covering all the #COVID19 research at the University and helping us navigate our interactions with the outside media.