Revolutionizing Approach: Concentrating Microbes from San Francisco WWTP Wastewater with Nanotrap© Technology for Downstream Analysis
Authors: Michael Hajkowski, Katherine Dick
Faculty Supervisor: Archana Anand
Department: Biology
With the emergence of variant and novel pathogens, it is crucial to track population infection to influence societal response and policy making. Ceres Nanotrap© Magnetic Beads (NMBs) were developed to trace viral particles in public wastewater in 2019. This method was later automated to trace severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Traditional wastewater filtration methods (i.e. skim milk filtrations and membrane filtrations) require large sample sizes with varying nucleic acid yields. NMBs may revolutionize wastewater monitoring, allowing researchers to concentrate targeted microbes from a sample efficiently compared to traditional concentration methods. It is unknown what targeted microbes are most efficiently concentrated using NMBs. Our goal is to identify what targeted microbes are best concentrated using NMBs, and appropriate subsequent computational analysis for said target microbes. In the first year of my graduate studies, I have completed the objective of developing a non-targeted NMB concentration protocol, and I will use qPCR to confirm protocol accuracy. I will sequence eluted nucleic acids using shotgun sequencing for further metagenomic analysis, confirming the protocol’s robustness, while identifying microbes and associated hosts. I expect NMB concentration method to concentrate some microbes at a different efficiency rate than others. This research will set a precedent for what microbes are most efficiently concentrated using NMB concentration method.