Mark Herz: This is GBH’s Morning Edition.

We’ve been marking the fifth anniversary of the Covid pandemic this week. And one local company that rose to national prominence and importance during that troubling time was Biobot Analytics, headquartered in Cambridge. Biobot is now well known for its technology that detects and tracks Covid and other pathogens in wastewater. Before I hosted this show, I spent a lot of time on public health reporting, and I can well recall, especially very early on, the confusing, overloaded, but well-intended Covid dashboards that tried to wrestle with tracking the virus’s frightening path through Massachusetts. In the end, Biobot’s wastewater data was and is really the only and best way to know what’s up with Covid. Joining us now, Biobot’s Co-founder Newsha Ghaeli, to talk about what was learned in the pandemic and how they’re addressing other public health dangers. Newsha, good morning.

Newsha Ghaeli: Good morning, hi. Thank you for having me.

Herz: It’s our pleasure. You all were well-positioned to help public health experts when Covid hit. Tell us about that and how it all came about.

Ghaeli: Yeah, absolutely. So my co-founder and I started Biobot in 2018. It was based on research that we had done at MIT. And when we started the company, the vision was really that, you know, wastewater is a source of, you know, a very important source of information on human health and human behavior. It’s valuable, but it’s also untapped. And so we started by wanting to really uncover the value of this resource to help make our cities healthier, safer from a public health perspective. And, you know, we even thought that our cities were not necessarily ready for the next pandemic. So this was back in 2018. And we started focusing on what was the biggest public health issue back then – and it was the opioid epidemic. And so we started trying to scale this technology across local communities in the United States for a couple of years before Covid hit. But once Covid hit, it became clear to us that we could actually use what we were building to not only understand but also help better respond to this emerging pandemic.

Herz: It’s so interesting to me that you mentioned opioids. We talked previously, and I didn’t know that you guys had started by tracking opioids. And certainly I think it’s important to talk about that. You know, this is the other epidemic that at times it seemed to get pushed off the radar because of Covid. It has killed some 2000 Massachusetts residents every year for the better part of a decade now. But you know, what is your technology -- tell us when it comes to the data on overdoses and how you track opioids, because I know that you all have renewed that focus on opioids.

Ghaeli: Yes, so we are currently working across the country looking at not only illicit opioids like fentanyl, heroin, but also prescription opioids, but also other illicit drugs of concern. So think methamphetamines, xylene. And what our data tells local government officials and public health officials is: what drugs are being consumed in the community, what are the most prevalent drugs do we see, what are the trends in consumption, when do we see increased consumption of certain drugs and decreased consumption of other drugs? And we think that this data is incredibly important because it’s painting a picture of everybody in a community, not just those who are accessing health care resources. So not just those who are overdosing and dialing 911, or those who are actually dying from an overdose who are counted in those overdose death numbers. So wastewater instead gives us a much bigger picture of what’s going on in our communities. And so that helps our public health officials actually deploy programing that will reach everybody and help everybody.

Herz: Yeah, really fascinating stuff. And as you say, it really underscores there – I was mentioning deaths, but there’s so much more to this than deaths. And it really brings you in, in real time. And speaking of bringing in in real time, you know, infectious disease surveillance, it was shown to be an incredibly weak link in America’s public health infrastructure during the Covid pandemic. You know, where do we stand now? Are we ready? I mean, you mentioned the next pandemic. Experts say there will be a next pandemic. It’s not a question. How are you all positioned to help us know what’s coming and track it when it gets here?

Ghaeli: So the same platform that we build and deploy in our communities to, let’s say, track for Covid 19. We can also use that exact same platform. So those same sewage samples that are being collected to understand influenza trends or RSV trends in a community throughout, you know, our respiratory season, they can be used to look at exactly, you know, drug monitoring. So the opioid epidemic we were talking about – earlier back in 2021, 2022, we launched nationwide Mpox monitoring for the Mpox virus as that was emerging in the country. We have just launched measles virus monitoring. We have been doing H5 avian influenza monitoring. So if there is, you know, one thing that we really want to take away from the pandemic is that we need these established infectious disease monitoring systems in our country. And, you know, I’m hopeful that we’ve learned this lesson, at least with respect to the value of wastewater intelligence, because we see a lot of local communities now have ongoing monitoring programs for Covid and many more things. And the federal government, the CDC has a national wastewater surveillance system and platform established. So the CDC values this data. Local communities value this data. And we’re really hopeful that that continues.

Herz: This is a different climate that we’re working in here as far as public health with the Trump Administration. They’ve been cutting global health efforts through USAID, where some of these things come from overseas, like Covid, as we’ve been talking about. Anything to say about that climate that your company and the rest of us are all operating in now?

Ghaeli: So far, we haven’t seen any changes in funding for the CDC’s wastewater program or at the local level. But, you know, with the cuts in global public health that the U.S. federal government has done and, you know, withdrawing from the WHO – we are running blind a little bit to what’s happening around the world. And so a domestic infectious disease monitoring platform becomes even more important so that we have an early warning when something emerges on U.S. soil. And so, you know, we’re taking from somewhere, but we should be, I think, really focusing on investing elsewhere – or else you know, we’re not going to know what’s happening.

Herz Biobot’s Co-founder Newsha Ghaeli. Thanks for your perspective.

Ghaeli: Thank you.

Herz: This is GBH.

This week marks five years since COVID-19 was recognized as a worldwide pandemic and disrupted life in Massachusetts.

On March 15, 2020, then-Gov. Charlie Baker implemented several lockdown measures — including ordering all public and private schools in Massachusetts to close for three weeks, banning eating at restaurants, and prohibiting gatherings of more than 25 people.

One local company that rose to national prominence during that time was Cambridge-based Biobot Analytics, which is now well known for its technology that detects and tracks the coronavirus and other pathogens by using data from local wastewater.

Biobot cofounder Newsha Ghaeli first started the company in 2018 with Mariana Matus, using research the two had done together at MIT.

“When we started the company, the vision was really that wastewater is a source of, you know, a very important source of information on human health and human behavior,” she said. “It’s valuable, but it’s also untapped.”

Gailey and Matus began by focusing on what Gailey says was the biggest public health issue at the time: the opioid epidemic.

“And so we started trying to scale this technology across local communities in the United States for a couple of years before COVID hit,” she said. “But once COVID hit, it became clear to us that we could actually use what we were building to not only understand but also help better respond to this emerging pandemic.”

Ghaeli said the technology Biobot employed during the COVID-19 pandemic can continue to help public health officials monitor other viruses and diseases, including RSV and flu, Mpox, measles and bird flu.

“One thing that we really want to take away from the pandemic is that we need these established infectious disease monitoring systems in our country,” she said. “And, you know, I’m hopeful that we’ve learned this lesson, at least with respect to the value of wastewater intelligence, because we see a lot of local communities now have ongoing monitoring programs for COVID and many more things. And the federal government, the CDC has a national wastewater surveillance system and platform established.”

Biobot is also currently working across the country to examine illicit opioids like fentanyl and heroin, along with prescription opioids, and other illicit drugs of concern like methamphetamines and xylene.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reports that there were 2,125 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths in 2023, which is 232 fewer than in 2022.

“What our data tells local government officials and public health officials is: what drugs are being consumed in the community, what are the most prevalent drugs do we see, what are the trends in consumption, when do we see increased consumption of certain drugs and decreased consumption of other drugs,” she said. “And we think that this data is incredibly important because it’s painting a picture of everybody in a community, not just those who are accessing health care resources.”

When asked about the recent cuts the Trump administration has made to federal funding, Ghaeli said she hasn’t yet seen any changes in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s wastewater program or at the local level.

“But, you know, with the cuts in global public health that the U.S. federal government has done and, you know, withdrawing from the WHO — we are running blind a little bit to what’s happening around the world,” she said. “And so a domestic infectious disease monitoring platform becomes even more important so that we have an early warning when something emerges on U.S. soil.”