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Houston Wastewater Epidemiology

Wastewater testing in the lab.

Rice researchers partnering with Houston Health Department on wastewater surveillance to stay ahead of measles outbreak

April 7, 2025

As measles cases rise across Texas and the nation, a team of researchers at Rice and the Houston Health Department is leveraging wastewater surveillance to detect the virus in the community.

Carol Haddock

Alumna Carol Haddock brings decades of leadership and public service experience to Rice

March 10, 2025

Carol Haddock ’91 has carved a remarkable path in civil engineering. Now, as a professor-in-the-practice of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, she is imparting her hard-earned knowledge to the next generation of engineers.

Houston school buses

Wastewater study monitors Houston schools for viral threats

March 1, 2023

A new study by Rice University and the Houston Health Department finds that wastewater-based monitoring is an effective way to detect viral outbreaks in schools.

Lauren Sadler has won an NSF CAREER Award

Lauren Stadler has won an NSF CAREER Award

February 21, 2023

Engineering’s Lauren Stadler has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to improve wastewater treatment by harnessing the power of microbiomes.

LAB NOTES

Lab Notes for Jan. 30, 2023

January 30, 2023

STAT’s Hopkins co-authors National Academies report. CAREER Awards keep coming. DOE funds NEWT desalination research.

Rice University engineers compare wastewater ‘snapshots’ to daylong composite samples and find snapshots lead to bias in testing for the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes.

Daylong wastewater samples yield surprises

December 19, 2022

Rice engineers find snapshots lead to bias in testing wastewater for antibiotic-resistant genes.

Rice University scientists and engineers develop programmable bacteria that sense contaminants and release an electronic signal in real time.

Bacterial sensors send a jolt of electricity when triggered

November 2, 2022

Rice researchers develop programmable bacteria that sense contaminants and release an electronic signal in real time.

Rafael Verduzco

NSF backs bid to speed environmental tests for viruses

October 11, 2022

The NSF backs Rice University efforts to speed the analysis of wastewater for coronaviruses from hours to seconds.

people, papers, presentations

People, papers and presentations for Sept. 12, 2022

September 12, 2022

Rice statisticians Katherine Ensor and Loren Hopkins and civil and environmental engineer Lauren Stadler are co-authors of a commentary in Nature Medicine that issues an urgent call to scale up wastewater monitoring to detect early signs of disease.

A system to track COVID-19 through Houston’s wastewater became the basis of an epidemiology center that has now earned special designation from the U.S. government and $1 million in its first year of federal funding.

CDC names Houston Health Department, Rice a wastewater epidemiology Center of Excellence

August 5, 2022

A system to track COVID-19 through Houston’s wastewater became the basis of an epidemiology center that has now earned special designation from the U.S. government and $1 million in its first year of federal funding.

Waste

Houston refines hunt for COVID in wastewater

March 22, 2021

There are many ways to test municipal wastewater for signs of the virus that causes COVID-19, but scientists in Houston have determined theirs is the best yet.

covid

Antibody study suggests COVID-19 infections underestimated

December 14, 2020

A monthslong study to determine the number of Houstonians carrying COVID-19 antibodies revealed infections may have been four times greater than viral tests showed, according to collaborators at the Houston Health Department, Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine.

A weekly viral trend analysis based on data from wastewater treatment plants shows the city of Houston where the coronavirus is increasing and decreasing. (Courtesy of the Houston Health Department)

Rice helps give Houston early COVID-19 warnings

September 24, 2020

Scientists and statisticians at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering have worked long hours for months to help the city of Houston monitor the spread of COVID-19 through traces of the coronavirus found in wastewater treatment plants.

Mask transposed over a model fo the corona virus

Rice awards first COVID-19 research grants

April 20, 2020

The Rice University COVID-19 Research Fund Oversight and Review Committee announced it will support projects to develop affordable diagnostic tools, seals to maximize the efficiency of surgical masks, a system to identify signs of the coronavirus in Houston wastewater and methods to ensure voter safety this fall.

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