In an effort to support our clients and communities’ initiatives to provide safe working environments and continuation of operations, Geosyntec rapidly transformed its genetics testing laboratory, SiREM, from testing bacteria metabolizing environmental contaminants to testing virus RNA from SARS-CoV-2. Geosyntec’s diagnostic methods monitor SARS-CoV-2 virus in the environment through wastewater, surfaces people come in contact with, and pooled saliva testing. In addition, we work closely with clients to collect, analyze, and present sampling, testing, surveillance and monitoring data in an easily understandable fashion to support decisions that save lives and provide health officials with accurate and timely information to make decisions with confidence.

As a result of these efforts, Geosyntec and SiREM received two of Environmental Business Journal’s Business Achievement Awards. The first, for Outstanding Business Performance in 2020 for COVID Response: Repurposing our Genetics Lab, and the second for Information Technology: Support for Data Driven Decisions. These recognitions are a testament to our clients’ proactive and innovative efforts to deploy tools to protect their communities and stakeholders.

We reached out to our university partners to share the news and to discuss their perspective on how our partnership provided benefit to their community.

Dr. David L. Freedman, Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University, chose to partner with Geosyntec based on his longstanding relationship with Geosyntec’s advanced research staff and Geosyntec’s early development of an assay for quantifying SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Clemson had begun formulating a plan for wastewater monitoring for the virus, and the partnership allowed Clemson to quickly develop an early warning to provide data to policy makers.

“Duane Graves was extremely helpful in finding ways to get the best quality data and interpretation of data quickly,” said Dr. Freedman. “The significant impact of our partnership with Geosyntec was that our data became an early signal for a problem in the Clemson campus and two nearby wastewater treatment plants. Our voice was instrumental in getting an early mask ordinance passed to help protect people.”

Geosyntec has worked to get Clemson’s own lab the information they need for an ongoing in-house wastewater treatment monitoring program. Dr. Freedman added, “This experience shows we have not been paying enough attention to using wastewater to monitor the health of the community. Going forward, wastewater monitoring will also help us monitor the effectiveness of vaccines as they become widespread.”

In these challenging times, we understand we have clients at risk from the pandemic who are counting on us and on our lab to keep them and their residents, patients, coworkers, and students safe. We truly seek to make a difference.

As new challenges emerge, Geosyntec continues to innovate. Our SiREM lab now offers specific variant testing for mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus the virus that causes COVID-19. We successfully launched monitoring programs for wastewater monitoring in municipalities, university campuses and communities across the country informing decisions makers of the prevalence of the virus in their community and the effectiveness of safety measures. Now, as vaccination programs are implemented and restrictions are lifted, wastewater surveillance has become a valuable tool to monitor the efficacy of vaccinations in communities and track reductions in prevalence. Simple sample collection and testing can also monitor the introduction of new variants and measure trends and prevalence in communities and on campuses to identify potential risks from virus mutations to quickly and inexpensively deliver information to community leaders and public health officials to support data-driven decisions.

More Information

About Dr. Freedman: https://www.clemson.edu/cecas/departments/eees/people/facultydirectory/freedman.html
About Clemson: http://www.clemson.edu
About wastewater monitoring for virus: https://www.geosyntec.com/COVID-19/sars-cov-2-wastewater-sampling-and-testing