{"id":743235,"date":"2026-07-04T18:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/743235\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T18:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:49:11","slug":"mass-to-end-contract-with-biobot-for-wastewater-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/743235\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass. to end contract with Biobot for wastewater surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biobot Analytics<\/a>, founded by two MIT students, transformed the dirty business of sewage into an important new public health tool. By analyzing wastewater from treatment plants, the company detected traces of the coronavirus days before<\/a> infections showed up in hospitals and testing sites, providing a harbinger of where the disease was spreading \u2014 or not \u2014 at a time when the nation was in lockdown and on edge. <\/p>\n

News organizations began tracking waste water movement much like they would the weather, and Biobot quickly became a reliable indicator for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State of Massachusetts, and dozens of municipalities and other customers.<\/p>\n

But Biobot no longer has the field to itself, and in the years since the pandemic, waste water surveillance has evolved from an emergency response into a routine public health tool.<\/p>\n

For example, the CDC had terminated its contract with Biobot in 2023<\/a>, selecting a Google-affiliated company as a replacement. More recently, Massachusetts\u2019 partnership with Biobot ends on July 31, and with it a contract worth $400,000 a month. The state will instead do its own testing, which officials say will cost about one-quarter as much. <\/p>\n

\u201cI aspire for Biobot to be an independent source of truth,\u201d said its chief executive, Mariana Matus. \u201cI\u2019m very sad about the state\u2019s contract, because it\u2019s a huge hit for my company, but I also think it\u2019s a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biobot still has a large number of government customers, but the young company is now distinguishing itself by concentrating on much broader surveillance programs for diseases and other indicators that are beyond the focus of most state-run monitoring programs.<\/p>\n

The company was founded in 2017 by Matus, a computational biologist, and Newsha Ghaeli, an architect and urban planner, while they were graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It has raised over $40 million since 2017. <\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with science because of \u2018Jurassic Park,\u2019\u201d Matus said with a laugh. \u201cI wanted to use science to change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

People infected with viruses and other pathogens shed genetic material in their waste, allowing scientists to measure what diseases are circulating across communities by testing waste water. The company deploys a technology called metagenomic sequencing<\/a> to read the genetic material in a waste water sample and identify thousands of viruses and other microbes at once.<\/p>\n

As a doctoral student, Matus said she became convinced that waste water surveillance could reveal the hidden health of communities, from infectious disease to drug use, in near real time. Waste water surveillance has long been used in parts of Europe and Australia to monitor illicit drug use and in some countries to track polio. But at the time, she said, no company in the United States was offering waste water monitoring as a commercial service.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to transform waste water infrastructure into public health observatories,\u201d Matus said. \u201cOur vision is to continue to build that into a data platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partners quickly jumped on board, and competitors followed suit.<\/p>\n

\"ChiefChief executive of Biobot, Mariana Matus, poses for a portrait in Cabot Park in Newton, on Jan. 17, 2022.Erin Clark\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

In 2014, Biobot\u2019s sequencing work helped identify signals of avian flu in waste water before officials fully understood how widely the virus had spread among cattle. The same approach helped detect measles signals months ahead of outbreaks in a dozen cities, said Anthony Maresso<\/a>, a Baylor College of Medicine researcher whose lab works with Biobot.<\/p>\n

In Nantucket, the Department of Public Health expanded its partnership with Biobot in 2023 to monitor illicit drugs. Waste water testing revealed persistently elevated cocaine levels<\/a>, which led to six people being charged with cocaine trafficking or distribution, in what authorities described as the largest seizure<\/a> in the department\u2019s history: nearly 6 pounds of cocaine seized in February 2025.<\/p>\n

Nantucket police Chief Jody Kasper said information from Biobot provided valuable insight into the types of drugs present in the community. While the data is not tied to specific criminal investigations, \u201cIt has helped us better understand overall trends. The levels of cocaine detected were particularly concerning,\u201d Kasper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Detective Division has been proactively targeting narcotics offenses over the past two years, and those efforts have resulted in multiple drug trafficking arrests,\u201c Kasper said.<\/p>\n

Marc Johnson, a University of Missouri virologist, said waste water testing has shed light on a shocking amount of cocaine use nationally, along with glimpses into diseases that otherwise spread unnoticed through communities.<\/p>\n

In July 2023, after Biobot\u2019s contract with the CDC ended, the agency awarded a new contract to Verily<\/a>, a Google-affiliated health technology company, in partnership with Emory and Stanford universities, for a program they call WastewaterSCAN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Combined waste water testing at federal, state, and local levels and private sites captures 41 percent of the American population, according to Margaret Honein, director of the CDC\u2019s Division of Infectious Disease Readiness and Innovation. <\/p>\n

Massachusetts did extend Biobot\u2019s contract for one month to cover the influx of travelers for the World Cup. In June, the company used the World Cup as an opportunity to launch a public dashboard<\/a> tracking waste water in 11 cities, including Boston, showcasing genomic sequencing technology capable of detecting more than 1,500 human and animal viruses from a single sample.<\/p>\n

Catherine Brown, Massachusetts\u2019 state epidemiologist, noted federal funding helped kick-start waste water testing. \u201cAt the time, because we were not using waste water testing already, most jurisdictions contracted with companies that provided those services.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as the emergency phase of the pandemic faded, federal funding priorities shifted. Rather than continuing to pay vendors, states were encouraged to build their own capacity.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Deer Island MWRA water treatment facility in Boston Harbor is seen in the distance from an apartment tower in Jamaica Plain, on June 2, 2022.Lane Turner\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Brown said Massachusetts researched waste water testing methods at the State Public Health Laboratory and expects to launch the in-house program in the fall. It will focus on diseases \u201cpeople don\u2019t test enough for anymore,\u201d she said, including COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and mpox.<\/p>\n

The state will monitor fewer locations than during the pandemic: 12 large municipal waste water treatment facilities, down from 60, that each serve about 95,000 people. Brown said those sites should provide a representative picture of disease trends while sharply reducing costs.<\/p>\n

While Biobot is capable of detecting tick-borne diseases and other pathogens, Brown said she doesn\u2019t think the state needs more extensive testing. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can test for almost everything,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what do you want to test for, and how is it actionable when you find it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Massachusetts isn\u2019t alone. States including Maine, Rhode Island, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Missouri have built or expanded in-house waste water surveillance programs as the federal government has encouraged states to develop their own laboratory capacity.<\/p>\n

Matus said it\u2019s \u201ca good sign\u201d the states believe waste water monitoring is important, but moving work in-house could also create redundancy. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo some extent, it brings independence from a private sector partner; however, I think that it\u2019s a mistake to only do work in-house because then your technology cannot advance as fast as what the industry is going through. It\u2019s very hard to keep up with the pace of technology development,\u201d she said. \u201cFor the same price point they may be doing five pathogens, they could be doing the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Biobot\u2019s new public dashboard<\/a> displays viruses including respiratory and gastrointestinal pathogens, measles, mpox, rubella, dengue, and Zika. Biobot says it will report other dangerous findings, such as Ebola or hantavirus, directly to public health authorities.<\/p>\n

Biobot still works with dozens of communities and agencies, including Nantucket and Gloucester, in 40 states; federal agencies, such as the Office of National Drug Control Policy; and vaccine manufacturers, which use the company\u2019s data to better understand how diseases are spreading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company is doing very well despite the headwinds,\u201d Matus said.<\/p>\n

She argues government laboratories and private companies ultimately serve different roles. While many state labs focus on monitoring a handful of pathogens, Biobot is investing in technologies capable of detecting thousands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re optimistic about the long-term future because the opportunities are that big,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Matus likens waste water surveillance to another technology that initially struggled to find believers. \u201cIf you had asked people before the iPhone if they needed it, they would have said no. I think it\u2019s the same with waste water epidemiology,\u201d she said. \u201cEven when we started the COVID-19 work, there were always people saying it was useless. And then, over time, it just became part of public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Rahal can be reached at sarah.rahal@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her on X @SarahRahal_<\/a> or Instagram @sarah.rahal<\/a>.<\/p>\n