Friday, October 31, 2025 10/31/2025

Bioinformatics Framework for Wastewater-based Surveillance of Infectious Diseases

Award Number: U01LM013129
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/03/2019
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2024

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Bioinformatics Framework for Wastewater-based Surveillance of Infectious Diseases - Abstract Enabling access to comprehensive biomedical information is central to the mission of the National Library of Medicine and key to disease prevention for better health outcomes nationally and globally. In the area of infectious disease prevention, real time and non-biased sequence data are essential for early detection of threats to mitigate outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics. This proposed research project aims to innovate in the creation and accessibility of metagenomic sequence data relating to infectious agents by leveraging the potentially transformative tool of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). The WBE approach employs analysis of community wastewater from large populations to enable non-invasive, near real-time monitoring of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. When combined with high-throughput metagenomic sequencing (HTS), the resulting WBE-HTS approach is promising for detecting a broad spectrum of infectious agents simultaneously without any a priori assumptions about virus identity or presence. This project will test the hypothesis that the processing of aggregated metagenomic sequence data on viruses detectable in U.S. wastewater can serve to identify vulnerabilities, outbreaks and epidemics early, thereby creating a novel and potentially life-saving diagnostic approach for protecting public health. For hypothesis testing, the team will leverage Arizona State University's Human Health Observatory (HHO), the largest sewage monitoring network and largest archive of sewage and sludge samples worldwide, representing more than 200 U.S. cities and over 300 cities globally. The overall goal of this work is to develop a broadly applicable online bioinformatics framework and to demonstrate its utility in a case study employing WBE and HTS. The three specific aims are to: (i) inventory viruses extant in the U.S. in a comprehensive database, using existing database sources and WBE; (ii) generate a knowledge repository and online portal of metagenomic data to support near real-time surveillance of the human–associated virome, and (iii) evaluate the utility of the WBE bioinformatics framework for tracking viral outbreaks and epidemics. Successful completion of this project will provide the U.S. with an early warning system for pathogen detection and outbreak tracking that can serve to prevent epidemics, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality in the U.S. from contagious pathogens, first for viruses and potentially in the future for pathogenic bacteria and other biohazards.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = -$4,742 )
2025	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	001	4	10/27/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$4,056
2025	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	4	10/17/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$686
														Subtotal = -$4,742

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = -$2,362 )
2023	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	001	4	12/30/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2023	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	002	4	6/21/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2023	2021	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	000	2	11/17/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$2,362
														Subtotal = -$2,362

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $1,866,723 )
2022	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	004	4	6/9/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$466,648
2022	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	003	4	6/8/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$379,196
2022	2022	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	3	11/12/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$1,020,879
2022	2021	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	001	2	11/15/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2022	2020	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	002	2	5/13/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
														Subtotal = $1,866,723

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $950,798 )
2021	2021	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	004	3	6/24/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$379,196
2021	2021	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	003	2	6/22/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2021	2021	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	001	2	12/21/2020	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$571,602
2021	2020	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	005	2	8/9/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2021	2020	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	002	2	12/22/2020	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2021	2020	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY	660 S MILL AVE STE 312	TEMPE	AZ	85281	MARICOPA	USA	Medical Library Assistance	000	2	12/18/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $950,798

Grand Total All Awards = $2,810,418

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Bioinformatics Framework for Wastewater-based Surveillance of Infectious Diseases

Award Number: U01LM013129

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/03/2019

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2024

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