Hutchison, Justin

Dr. Justin M. Hutchison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas (KU). He holds adjunct appointments in the Bioengineering Department at KU and the Infectious Disease Unit at KU Medical Center. Dr. Hutchison leads the Environmental Biocatalytics Research Group (biocatalytics.ku.edu). His research seeks to develop novel, protein-based technologies to address emerging threats in drinking water and to evaluate and optimize the sustainability of drinking water treatment technologies. Dr. Hutchison holds B.A. degrees in Biochemistry, Biology, and Pre-Medicine from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining the KU faculty in fall 2018, he interned with Carollo Engineers evaluating biological drinking water treatment of perchlorate and nitrate.

Titles from this speaker

SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Measurements Normalized Using Biomarkers

Abstract

As of November 2020, COVID-19 has led to more than 63 million cases and 1.47 million deaths with 270,481 of those deaths in the US. While COVID-19 commonly presents as a respiratory illness, symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals shed the COVID-causative agent (SARS-CoV-2) in their stool. This observation has motivated significant efforts to quantify SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. The ultimate goal of these measurements is to offer an assessment of the disease prevalence within a community, which is an approach referred to as wastewater-based epidemiology. The quantification of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater relies on concentrating and assessing the number of viral particles in wastewater using SARS-CoV-2 specific genes (nucleocapsid, N1 and N2). Recent work evaluated the performance of several concentration methods, including ultrafiltration, electronegative membranes, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation (1). The PEG method demonstrated high yield and consistent recovery. In the same study, for quantification, the SARS-CoV-2 N1 was measured at a slightly higher but significant value compared to N2. Work is ongoing to develop robust protocols for SARS-CoV-2 quantification. However, to fully realize the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology, additional methods must be developed to normalize the SARS-CoV-2 concentrations to population equivalence. It is well known that wastewater concentrations vary significantly with wet weather flow, thus a normalization technique must account for variations in wastewater strength. Wastewater concentrations under dry weather will also change with transient populations, and this is especially important for a college town or business community with commuter activity. Biomarkers can be used to determine the number of individuals contributing fecal matter to a sewershed. Ideally, biomarkers are specific to human waste, stable in wastewater, and consistently shed at known rates. This abstract reflects work to develop wastewater-based epidemiology as a tool to inform public health decisions by normalizing SARS-CoV-2 concentrations using four biomarkers. Weekly SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in influent wastewater were determined from two wastewater plants in Lawrence, KS. These concentrations have been normalized with four different biomarkers, and this SARS-CoV-2 data has been statistically correlated with COVID-19 case data. The overall purpose is to determine the most predictive metric for public health surveillance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential role that wastewater-based epidemiology can play in assessing aggregate community health. Efforts to translate Sars-CoV-2 gene copy numbers obtained from wastewater samples into meaningful community health indicators are nascent. In this study, four biomarkers (ammonia, biological oxygen demand, creatinine, and human mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5) were quantified and used to normalize Sars-CoV-2 gene copy numbers. These data were correlated to case data. Mitochondrial and creatinine normalization methods showed the strongest correlations throughout the studying indicating that human-specific biomarkers were better at normalizing wastewater data than ammonia or BOD.

SpeakerHutchison, Justin

Presentation time

14:10:00

14:30:00

Session time

13:30:00

15:00:00

SessionBuilding a Successful Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE) Program

Session number501

TopicFundamental Level, Laboratory Practices, Public Communication and Outreach, Utility Management and Leadership

Author(s)

Justin Hutchison

Author(s)J. Hutchison1; B. Sturm1; Z.N. Li1; M. Wittman1; T. Stiles3; A. Depew1; R.T. Flynn2; A. Romero1;

Author affiliation(s)Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS1Municipal Services & Operations, City of Lawrence, Lawrence, KS2Bureau of Water, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Topeka, KS3

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Oct 2021

DOI10.2175/193864718825158143

Volume / Issue

Content sourceWEFTEC

Word count7