A watershed moment in public health
Our approach to wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) monitors the spread of pathogens to help communities prepare for and prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Public health
Wastewater-based epidemiology
Verily is a leader in the laboratory science behind wastewater-based epidemiology. In collaboration with scientific organizations, government agencies, and commercial organizations, our scientists conduct research to develop and validate assays needed to consistently and accurately measure the concentration of viral and bacterial DNA and RNA for a variety of pathogens in wastewater.
Verily is working closely with public health specialists, clinicians, and researchers to use the data from wastewater to explore various use cases ranging from improving existing public health surveillance systems to optimizing research and development efforts.
Our approach
Verily’s researchers are on the leading edge of identifying pathogens of public health importance that can be detected in wastewater.
The Verily difference
Verily provides quality, fast turnaround wastewater monitoring results for a broad array of pathogens to hundreds of sites across the United States using our high-throughput, state of the art lab leveraging automation to optimize efficiency
Publications co-authored
Results delivered since 2020
Pathogens currently monitored
Monitoring the health of communities
The detection and quantification of pathogens through wastewater can provide advanced warning, before clinical testing or hospitalizations, to help communities prepare and respond.
Verily provides an easy to understand online tool to monitor the level of viruses circulating in the geographic areas from which samples are submitted, providing timely information for public health awareness and action.
Up next
Viewpoint
1. Boehm, A. B., Wolfe, M. K., White, B. J., Hughes, B., Duong, D., Banaei, N., and Bidwell, A. Aug. 2023. “Human norovirus (HuNoV) GII RNA in wastewater solids at 145 United States wastewater treatment plants: comparison to positivity rates of clinical specimens and modeled estimates of HuNoV GII shedders”. J. Expo. Sci. Environ. Epidemiol., pp. 1– 8. DOI: 10.1038/s41370-023-00592-4.
2. Boehm, A. B., Wolfe, M. K., White, B., Hughes, B., and Duong, D. June 2023. “Divergence of wastewater SARS-CoV-2 and reported laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 incident case data coincident with wide-spread availability of at-home COVID-19 antigen tests”. PeerJ 11, e15631. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15631.
3. Boehm, A. B., Wolfe, M. K., White, B., Hughes, B., Duong, D., and Bidwell, A. June 2023. “Community occurrence of metapneumovirus, influenza A, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) inferred from wastewater solids during the winter 2022-2023 tripledemic”. medRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.12.23291120.
4. Boehm, A. B., Wolfe, M. K., Wigginton, K. R., Bidwell, A., White, B. J., Hughes, B., Duong, D., Chan-Herur, V., Bischel, H. N., and Naughton, C. C. June 2023. “Human viral nucleic acids concentrations in wastewater solids from Central and Coastal California USA”. Sci Data 10.1, p. 396. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-023-02297-7.
5. Boehm, A. B., Hughes, B., Duong, D., Chan-Herur, V., Buchman, A., Wolfe, M. K., and White, B. J. Mar. 2023. “Wastewater concentrations of human influenza, metapneumovirus, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and seasonal coronavirus nucleic-acids during the COVID-19 pandemic: a surveillance study”. Lancet Microbe 4.5, e340– e348. DOI: 10.1016/S2666-5247(22)00386-X.
6. Wolfe, M. K., Yu, A. T., Duong, D., Rane, M. S., Hughes, B., Chan-Herur, V., Donnelly, M., Chai, S., White, B. J., Vugia, D. J., and Boehm, A. B. Jan. 2023. “Use of Wastewater for Mpox Outbreak Surveillance in California”. N. Engl. J. Med. 388.6, pp. 570–572. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2213882.
7. Kim, S., Wolfe, M. K., Criddle, C. S., Duong, D. H., Chan-Herur, V., White, B. J., and Boehm, A. B. Nov. 2022. “Effect of SARS-CoV-2 digital droplet RT-PCR assay sensitivity on COVID-19 wastewater based epidemiology”. PLOS Water 1.11, e0000066. DOI: 10.1371/journal. pwat.0000066.
8. Roldan-Hernandez, L., Graham, K. E., Duong, D., and Boehm, A. B. Nov. 2022. “Persistence of Endogenous SARS-CoV-2 and Pepper Mild Mottle Virus RNA in Wastewater-Settled Solids”. ACS ES T Water 2.11, pp. 1944–1952. DOI: 10.1021/acsestwater.2c00003.
9. Wolfe, M. K., Duong, D., Bakker, K. M., Ammerman, M., Mortenson, L., Hughes, B., Arts, P., Lauring, A. S., Fitzsimmons, W. J., Bendall, E., Hwang, C. E., Martin, E. T., White, B. J., Boehm, A. B., and Wigginton, K. R. Aug. 2022. “Wastewater-Based Detection of Two Influenza Outbreaks”. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 9.8, pp. 687–692. DOI: 10.1021/acs. estlett.2c00350.
10. Boehm, A. B., Hughes, B., Wolfe, M. K., White, B. J., Duong, D., and Chan-Herur, V. June 2022. “Regional Replacement of SARS-CoV-2 Variant Omicron BA.1 with BA.2 as Observed through Wastewater Surveillance”. Environ Sci Technol Lett 9.6, pp. 575–580. DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00266.
11. Huisman, J. S., Scire, J., Caduff, L., Fernandez-Cassi, X., Ganesanandamoorthy, P., Kull, A., Scheidegger, A., Stachler, E., Boehm, A. B., Hughes, B., Knudson, A., Topol, A., Wigginton, K. R., Wolfe, M. K., Kohn, T., Ort, C., Stadler, T., and Julian, T. R. May 2022. “Wastewater-based estimation of the effective reproductive number of SARS-CoV-2”. Env- iron. Health Perspect. 130.5, p. 57011. DOI: 10.1289/EHP10050.
12. Schoen, M. E., Wolfe, M. K., Li, L., Duong, D., White, B. J., Hughes, B., and Boehm, A. B. May 2022. “SARS-CoV-2 RNA Wastewater Settled Solids Surveillance Frequency and Impact on Predicted COVID-19 Incidence Using a Distributed Lag Model”. ACS ES T Water 2.11, pp. 2167–2174. DOI: 10.1021/acsestwater.2c00074.
13. Wolfe, M., Hughes, B., Duong, D., Chan-Herur, V., Wigginton, K. R., White, B. J., and Boehm, A. B. Apr. 2022. “Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Mu, Beta, Gamma, Lambda, Delta, Alpha, and Omicron in Wastewater Settled Solids Using Mutation-Specific Assays Is As- sociated with Regional Detection of Variants in Clinical Samples”. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 88.8, e0004522. DOI: 10.1128/aem.00045-22.
14. Yu, A. T., Hughes, B., Wolfe, M. K., Leon, T., Duong, D., Rabe, A., Kennedy, L. C., Ravuri, S., White, B. J., Wigginton, K. R., Boehm, A. B., and Vugia, D. J. Mar. 2022. “Estimat- ing Relative Abundance of 2 SARS-CoV-2 Variants through Wastewater Surveillance at 2 Large Metropolitan Sites, United States”. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 28.5, pp. 940–947. DOI: 10.3201/eid2805.212488.
15. Hughes, B., Duong, D., White, B. J., Wigginton, K. R., Chan, E. M. G., Wolfe, M. K., and Boehm, A. B. Feb. 2022. “Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) RNA in Wastewater Settled Solids Reflects RSV Clinical Positivity Rates”. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 9.2, pp. 173–178. DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00963.
16. Kim, S., Kennedy, L. C., Wolfe, M. K., Criddle, C. S., Duong, D. H., Topol, A., White, B. J., Kantor, R. S., Nelson, K. L., Steele, J. A., Langlois, K., Griffith, J. F., Zimmer-Faust, A. G., McLellan, S. L., Schussman, M. K., Ammerman, M., Wigginton, K. R., Bakker, K. M., and Boehm, A. B. Feb. 2022. “SARS-CoV-2 RNA is enriched by orders of magnitude in primary settled solids relative to liquid wastewater at publicly owned treatment works”. Environ. Sci. 8.4, pp. 757–770. DOI: 10.1039/d1ew00826a.
17. Kirby, A. E., [...], White, B. J., et al. Jan. 2022. “Notes from the Field: Early Evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Variant in Community Wastewater - United States, November-December 2021”. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 71.3, pp. 103–105. DOI: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7103a5.
18. Wolfe, M. K., Topol, A., Knudson, A., Simpson, A., White, B., Vugia, D. J., Yu, A. T., Li, L., Balliet, M., Stoddard, P., Han, G. S., Wigginton, K. R., and Boehm, A. B. Sept. 2021. “High- Frequency, High-Throughput Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater Settled Solids at Eight Publicly Owned Treatment Works in Northern California Shows Strong As- sociation with COVID-19 Incidence”. mSystems 6.5, e0082921. DOI: 10.1128/mSystems. 00829-21.
19. Simpson, A., Topol, A., White, B. J., Wolfe, M. K., Wigginton, K. R., and Boehm, A. B. Aug. 2021. “Effect of storage conditions on SARS-CoV-2 RNA quantification in wastewater solids”. PeerJ 9, e11933. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11933.