Inter-institutional laboratory standardization for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance through wastewater-based epidemiology applied to Mexico City.

Objectives: Wastewater-based surveillance applied to SARS-CoV-2 viral load quantification for COVID-19 has become one of the most relevant complementary tools in epidemiologic prevention programs worldwide. However, this valuable decision-making tool still requires fine-tuning to produce comparable results between laboratories, especially when applied to the surveillance of megacities.

Methods: Six laboratories across Mexico and one from the United States executed an interlaboratory study to set up a singular standardized protocol considering method cost, installed infrastructure, materials available, and supply availability for SARS-CoV-2 quantification from five Mexico City sampling sites across this megacity.

Development of biomaterial composite hydrogel as a passive sampler with potential application in wastewater-based surveillance.

Nowadays, the need to track fast-spreading infectious diseases has raised due to the recent COVID-19 disease pandemic. As a response, Wastewater-based Surveillance (WBS) has emerged as an early detection and disease tracking method for large populations that enables a comprehensive overview of public health allowing for a faster response from public health sector to prevent large outbreaks. The process to achieve WBS requires a highly intensive sampling strategy with either expensive equipment or trained personnel to continuously sample.

Emerging Applications of Nanobiosensors in Pathogen Detection in Water and Food.

Food and waterborne illnesses are still a major concern in health and food safety areas. Every year, almost 0.42 million and 2.

Successive Fermentation of Aguamiel and Molasses by and to Obtain High Purity Fructooligosaccharides.

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are usually synthesized with pure enzymes using highly concentrated sucrose solutions. In this work, low-cost aguamiel and molasses were explored as sucrose alternatives to produce FOS, via whole-cell fermentation, with an DIA-MF strain. FOS production process was optimized through a central composite experimental design, with two independent variables: initial sucrose concentration in a medium composed of aguamiel and molasses (AgMe), and inoculum concentration.

Relationships between physicochemical parameters and the toxicity of leachates from a municipal solid waste landfill.

Landfills are used to dispose municipal solid wastes, and although on-site recycling in these places is an extensive practice in Latin America, diverse pollutants are incorporated into the leachates. The objective of this work was to establish relationships between composition and toxicity of leachates from the landfill of the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Leachates were characterized measuring Cd, Ni, Hg, Mn, Cu, and Pb concentrations, and physicochemical parameters including pH, conductivity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and hardness.