Biosurveillance and Pathogen Detection

Summary

Biosurveillance is a systematic process to survey the environment or location of interest for bacteria, fungi, viruses, or other biological entities that might cause disease in people, animals, or plants in support of detection and identification efforts and corresponding public health or safety. NIST develops standards, methods, and measurement solutions to support biosurveillance and biodefense in collaboration with partners and stakeholders. We leverage our core microbial measurement capabilities and apply them to applications including biothreat detection, wastewater surveillance, and pathogen detection. 

Description

NIST has established partnerships with other federal agencies to develop standards and measurement solutions to support biosurveillance. These efforts are supported in part through interagency agreements with partner agencies listed below to address their standards needs.

PROGRAMS

• Standards for Biothreat Detection – NIST and DHS have partnered to develop documentary standards and reference materials to increase confidence in a biological assessment mission capability in the field to support public safety.
• Pathogen Detection and Identification in the Clinical Setting: The Next Generation of Analyses -- NIST is developing materials and methods to assess the performance of metagenomics for infectious disease diagnostics.
• Wastewater Surveillance – NIST is working with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other stakeholders to develop standards and measurement science to facilitate detection of biological targets in wastewater.
• Antimicrobial Resistance -- NIST is developing methods and materials to help identify and track antimicrobial resistance in the environment.
• Assessing Safety of Recreational Waters – NIST in collaboration with EPA supports the capability to detect human fecal contamination via polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• Rapid Response to Emerging mpox Threat – NIST developed a Research Grade Test Material (RGTM 10223) in response to the need for control materials in support of PCR-based detection of mpox.
• Standards for DARPA Friend or Foe Program – NIST served as an independent verification and validation (IV&V) laboratory for DARPA performers to benchmark their novel pathogen detection technologies.

REFERENCE MATERIALS

• SRM 2917 – Plasmid DNA with species-specific targets to detect and identify fecal contamination
• RM 8230 – Lyophilized yeast cells quantified for total cell count to serve as minimal risk surrogates for threat agents and pathogens during training and field exercises
• RM 8375 – Microbial genomic DNA from four species to challenge DNA sequencing technologies
• RM 8376 – Genomic DNA from 19 pathogens (plus human DNA) to support pathogen detection via molecular methods

WORKSHOPS

• 2020 NIST-Hosted Webinar on Measuring SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater and Fecal Material: A Call for Standards
• 2021 DHS/NIST Workshop: Standards to Support an Enduring Capability in Wastewater Surveillance for Public Health