Considerations for Wastewater-Based Epidemiology NGS Data Analysis

In part six of the Wastewater Surveillance Webinar series, Ali Perrotta, PhD, will review important considerations when working with wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) sample types. With WBE quickly developing and showing great potential to strengthen population-level surveillance of infectious diseases, studies performed to date indicate that WBE can add the ability to capture infections independently of clinical-seeking behavior and testing access, potentially on earlier timelines than clinical testing alone.

The following factors here are necessary to consider when working with WBE sample types:

• Wastewater is a complex mixture of chemical and biological compounds
• Pathogens may be present at low titers
• Genomic material may be fragmented and heterogeneous

Many of these considerations contribute to challenges in analyzing and interpreting sequencing data generated from WBE samples. This webinar highlights how these issues manifest in the sequencing data, the effects and limitations of current tools, and approaches in development to meet these challenges.

Ali Perrotta, PhD
Senior Field Application Scientist
Illumina