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October 3, 2022, Flushing, NY\u2014Today, Queens College President\u00a0Frank H. Wu<\/a>\u00a0welcomed Congresswoman Grace Meng at the school\u2019s\u00a0Wastewater Epidemiology Training Laboratory\u00a0(WETLAB)<\/a>, a project that she made possible with $1,850,000 in federal funding to develop strategies to detect dangerous pathogens in wastewater, including coronaviruses such as COVID-19, influenza, and more recently, polio and monkeypox. The money is part of nearly $10 million in federal allocations for Community Project Funding that was secured by Meng for ten projects throughout Queens. Queens College virologist John Dennehy, who conceived and directs the QC WETLAB project and has made\u00a0national headlines<\/a>\u00a0for his wastewater analysis efforts, and his students were also on hand to thank Meng and discuss their work. Mumbai native Sherin Kannoly, a National Institutes of Health-funded postdoctoral researcher in Dennehy’s lab, has developed a patent-pending device for the project that traps pathogens as sewer system water flows through it so that they can be extracted for testing.<\/p>\n \u201cQueens College does an outstanding job in serving students,” said Congresswoman Meng. \u201cIt also contributes greatly to our borough and city, and spearheading projects like these are a tremendous example of how it does that. The work of this WETLAB will be critical to the health and safety of New Yorkers, helping to ensure that we are prepared and equipped to tackle public health challenges when they occur. I am eager to see the work that the lab produces and look forward to it benefiting Queens and New York for many years to come. As New York\u2019s senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I am proud to have secured this crucial funding.\u201d Reflecting the extraordinary diversity of the university and college communities, Dennehy is one of the only U.S.-born members of his research team. Colleague Monica Trujillo, a Queensborough Community College microbiologist, is a native of Uruguay, and technicians who have worked on the project over the last two years\u2014several of whom have pursued postgraduate studies\u00a0or medical school\u2014have come from Bangladesh, Burma, China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Taiwan. One technician is the child of Iranian parents.<\/span><\/p>\n After monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at all 14 NYC wastewater treatment plants for the past two years, the Queens College team has expanded monitoring efforts to NYC Health + Hospitals facilities, where asymptomatic patients carrying serious infections may be shedding them in wastewater. The researchers are working to extend sampling to local airports to detect new pathogens being carried into the country at the earliest possible opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n About the Queens College Wastewater Epidemiology Training Laboratory<\/b><\/span> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”12px” background_color=”#EFEFEF” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”5px|17px|5px|17px|true|true” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n About Queens College<\/b><\/span> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_social_media_follow icon_color=”#A9A9A9″ use_icon_font_size=”on” icon_font_size=”22px” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” text_orientation=”right” width=”100%” min_height=”97px” custom_margin=”-3px||-1px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_release_template\/” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” border_color_all=”#A9A9A9″ global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]facebook[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_releases\/” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]twitter[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”linkedin” url=”https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/cws\/share?url=https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/press_releases” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” use_icon_font_size=”on” _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#C0C0C0″ background_enable_color=”on” border_radii=”on|25px|25px|25px|25px” global_colors_info=”{}” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]linkedin[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][\/et_pb_social_media_follow][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_blurb title=”Maria Matteo” image_icon_background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” image_icon_width=”48px” _builder_version=”4.16.1″ header_font=”Open Sans||||||||” body_text_color=”#000000″ body_font_size=”16px” custom_padding=”|||0px||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank all of you for joining us on this important occasion,\u201d said Wu. \u201cI am especially grateful to Congresswoman Grace Meng, one of Queens College\u2019s most effective advocates. Thanks to her vision, we are on the forefront of virus detection in New York City. She supported funding that made it possible to replace obsolete and old laboratory equipment, allowing Professor Dennehy and his researchers to increase the sensitivity and throughput\u00a0of their analyses. The funds will also make it possible to get new items that expand the kind of data they collect, further increasing their ability to conduct research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennehy said, “Wastewater-based epidemiology is a rapidly developing technology that will provide high paying jobs to our community in addition to helping keep Americans safe from future pandemics. We are grateful that Congresswoman Grace Meng has the vision and foresight to support this work, which is a tremendous boon to CUNY students and the citizens of Queens.”\u00a0
Daniel Weinstein, dean of the Queens College School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences,\u00a0acknowledged Meng\u2019s support in remarks.<\/p>\n
The Wastewater Epidemiology Training Laboratory (WETLAB) at Queens College aims to develop simple, cost-effective, and robust strategies for detecting the presence of dangerous pathogens\u2014including coronaviruses, polio, and influenza\u2014in sewer shed wastewater, while training students of diverse backgrounds to participate in high-level research activities. Failure to control virus outbreaks led to the emergence of novel variants of concern that threaten to erase gains from vaccination and recovery-based natural immunity. For these reasons, new approaches to community-wide pathogen surveillance are crucial for addressing the current and future pandemics. The WETLAB project was conceived and is directed by Queens College Biology Professor John Dennehy.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/b>Queens College enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs. With its graduate and undergraduate degrees, honors programs, and research and internship opportunities, the college helps its students realize their potential in countless ways, assisted by an accessible, award-winning faculty. Located on a beautiful, 80-acre campus in Flushing, the college has been cited by Princeton Review as one of America\u2019s Best Value Colleges for five consecutive years, as well as being ranked a\u00a0U.S. News and World Report<\/i>\u00a0Best College and\u00a0Forbes<\/i>\u00a0Magazine Best Value College thanks to its outstanding academics, generous financial aid packages, and relatively low costs. Visit our\u00a0<\/span>homepage<\/a>\u00a0to learn more\u200b.<\/p>\n