Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Water resources are increasingly recognized as playing a crucial role in the emergence, spillover, and spread of viruses, and serve as an important vector for human exposure. The risks from viruses in drinking water are poorly understood due to the lack of effective monitoring. As population growth and climate change increase water demand and challenge water security around the world, the need for reliable and safe water is escalating. The lack of feasible standardized virus monitoring technologies and methods have resulted in a significant public health gap. A major challenge in virological analysis of water is the need to recover low viral abundance from large volumes of water. Additionally, the reliance on conventional tools to assess virus infectivity involve viral-host interactions for culture-based quantification and provide limited and time-intensive results. The advancement of rapid molecular methods of detection such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) offer limited information regarding the viability and infectivity of viruses. There are multiple significant challenges that must be addressed to improve virus monitoring in drinking water systems. Dr. Gagnon seeks Discovery Grant funding to support a long-term research goal of improving our understanding of the occurrence and persistence of human viruses of concern in drinking water, from source to tap, to inform treatment processes and protect public health. This Discovery Grant program will build on Dr. Gagnon's innovative on-site SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance methodologies and his team's development of a novel passive sampling method using granular activated carbon (GAC) to concentrate viral targets in both fresh and wastewater settings. To improve viral monitoring in drinking water systems, this research program will i) develop and validate a GAC-based passive sampler capable of capturing a range of viruses of concern from source to tap, ii) develop molecular-based detection methods designed to distinguish between inactive and viable viruses, and iii) utilize these advancements to monitor viral viability and occurrence through disinfection processes and distribution systems. Findings from this program will have significant implications for drinking water safety in Canada. Through this five-year program several trainees will engage in leading-edge research and scholarship to prepare them for future careers in the water sector and aid them in advancing microbiological drinking water safety. This research program will provide actionable and accessible viral monitoring technologies and methodologies to close this gap and improve drinking water treatment in the 21st century.