December 2, 2022
Manassas, Virginia – December 2, 2022
Ceres Nanosciences (Ceres), a privately held company that makes innovative products to improve life science research and diagnostic testing, is announcing today that it is expanding the network of wastewater-based epidemiology centers of excellence that was established with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RADx® initiative. With a new $1.4 million award from the NIH, Ceres will identify and establish five additional centers of excellence to join the existing network of 16 sites comprising public health labs, non-profit labs, university labs, and commercial testing labs in 14 states. Ceres also will support the verification of SARS-CoV-2 genotyping from wastewater samples and the addition of this capacity to a subset of the centers of excellence.
Each new center of excellence will receive the materials and on-site training to implement an automated Nanotrap® particle protocol, which enables same-day delivery of wastewater testing results for over 100 samples per day. Extracted nucleic acids from this automated protocol are compatible with multiple nucleic acid detection methods, including reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, reverse transcription-droplet digital PCR, reverse transcription digital PCR, and genomic sequencing.
The United States is demonstrating global leadership in wastewater-based epidemiology through public-private partnerships like this, said Robbie Barbero, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer at Ceres Nanosciences. I am very proud that Ceres has once again been recognized by the U.S. government for our innovative technology and collaborative approach to advancing this field.
Centers are expected to share data and results with local, state, Tribal, and Federal public health decision makers and to participate in the CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System. Each new center will be selected based on its ability to utilize the expanded testing capacity to extend services into underserved and underprivileged communities and to balance the geographic reach of the network. Interested sites can learn more and apply for the program at https://www.ceresnano.com/wastewater-coe.