Researchers around the globe have already begun to use wastewater to detect the emergence and spread of COVID-19 outbreaks. This approach may prove to be a powerful epidemiological method to help Public Health officials mobilize resources and help determine the degree and duration of intervention needed in a community.

A concentration method, capable of bridging the gap between relevant sample volumes and the volumetric capacity of rapid molecular methods is needed in order to adequately monitor for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. This application requires that target organisms are detectable at very low concentrations from about 10 copies per 100 milliliters of influent to as little as 120 copies per 100 liters of effluent. Rapid methods are only capable of analyzing very small volumes; generally 10 microliters or less. 

InnovaPrep concentration technologies can bridge this gap faster, easier, and better than common methods.

InnovaPrep® was founded in 2009 with the express goal of making common preanalytical microbiology processes faster, easier, and better through mechanical enrichment. The flagship instrument, the Concentrating Pipette (CP) Select™, is a small bench top unit that uses dead-end filtration on high-flow single-use pipette tips to capture target particles.

The CP Select uses an automated recovery process, termed, Wet Foam Elution™ to enable efficient extraction of the particles from the filter membrane in seconds and can administer very precise and controlled amounts of foam that produce filter elution volumes as low as 200 microliters. The process maximizes concentration of the target thereby exponentially improving the limit of detection for trace pathogens.

InnovaPrep technologies have been used to concentrate microorganisms, including viruses, suspended in liquid with the CP Select from a variety of environmental sources such as marine recreational and aquaculture waters, surface waters, storm run-off, cave and spring waters, irrigation waters, as well as wastewater influent and effluent.

To learn more about concentrating SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to detectable levels - Download the Innovaprep White Paper - Rapid Concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater for COVID-19 Monitoring and Public Health Outbreak Mitigation