The COVID19 pandemic exposed the lack of reliable surveillance systems for rapidly identifying viral hotspots. In this talk Professor Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern (University of Bath) introduces Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) as a response to this need. WBE has been developed as a community level surveillance tool that uses mass spectrometry and other analytical chemistry tools to ‘fingerprint’ urban water and thus rapidly assess and predict public health risks. WBE is advancing rapidly in capability; future applications include the development of ‘big data’-driven WBE systems for a wide range of existing and potential health threats.

Professor Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, University of Bath