DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Verily, a precision health technology company, announced a significant expansion of its wastewater surveillance program into the United Kingdom through an exclusive partnership with Bangor University. This collaboration will leverage the university’s wastewater-based public health surveillance program capabilities and main testing lab. Bangor University’s wastewater monitoring capabilities are market leading in the U.K. for environmental bio-surveillance and the university’s lab serves as the research and development hub for the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The Bangor University lab, led by Davey Jones, Ph.D, a noted Professor of Environmental Science & Public Health and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor at Bangor University, will adopt Verily’s advanced wastewater testing technology to deliver high-quality public health data, crucial for tracking virus transmission and bolstering research and development efforts across both the public and private sectors. With this collaboration, the lab will extend its testing service capabilities to a wide range of human pathogens, including Norovirus, Influenza viruses, MPXV, SARS-CoV-2, antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and fungi. The lab will also accelerate new capability development, including environmental testing. Prof. Jones and his team will continue to lead operations in the Bangor University laboratory, in partnership with Verily.
Since its inception in 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangor University’s wastewater lab has become a leader in environmental bio-surveillance in the U.K. Utilizing Verily’s high-throughput, state-of-the-art wastewater lab automation to optimize efficiency, Bangor University will further establish itself as a world class wastewater surveillance facility capable of serving all regions of the U.K. and Europe broadly, and meeting current and emerging public health needs.
“Our partnership with Bangor University is an exciting advancement in Verily’s mission to establish an international pathogen monitoring network as we expand our capabilities to Europe,” said Andrew Trister, MD, PhD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Verily. “This collaboration enables our combined expertise to unlock assays more quickly and monitor for new pathogen targets that protect public health and foster safer, healthier communities worldwide.”
“Verily’s wastewater solutions and expanded pathogen coverage will amplify our ability to monitor for and respond to public health threats effectively,” said Prof. Davey Jones. “Together, we are integrating world-class science with advanced technology to deliver critical public health data to the U.K. and beyond.”
As a leader in the laboratory science behind wastewater-based epidemiology, Verily’s wastewater program offers logistics and surveillance to test for pathogens present in wastewater, allowing for timely monitoring and detection to inform faster and more precise public health actions. Verily currently collaborates with leading U.S.-based public health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and WastewaterSCAN, to provide wastewater testing services to track the presence of over 15 pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, Influenza and the H5 sub-type, and MPXV (formerly known as monkeypox virus) in wastewater samples from hundreds of sites across the United States.
This new partnership signifies Verily's entry into the European market and reinforces its commitment to global public health surveillance. Currently, Verily and Bangor University are working to onboard customers, including governments and life science companies, for both wastewater testing and generating unique insights from wastewater data.
About Verily
Verily is an Alphabet health technology company focused on research, care, and health financing to deliver on the promise of precision health and help people live healthier lives. We are uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology, data science, and healthcare to create tools to accelerate evidence generation, products to enable more personalized care, and approaches to make costs more predictable. For more information, please visit: verily.com.
About Bangor University Wastewater Lab
Bangor University is a research-led, entrepreneurial, bilingual institution in North Wales. Sustainability underpins the work of the University which is ranked in the top 30 in the UK for the societal impact of its research in the UK Research Excellence Framework, published in 2022. Established in 1884, the University has a long tradition of academic excellence and a strong focus on delivering a world-leading student experience. For over 15 years, the cutting-edge laboratory at Environment Centre Wales, Bangor University, has been at the forefront of using wastewater analysis to monitor public health and environmental quality. Initially focused on human viral pathogens, the lab has since expanded its research to encompass a wide range of indicators that offer valuable insights into human wellbeing. The laboratory's expertise gained international recognition when it led the development of the wastewater-based COVID-19 surveillance programme for England and Wales. Building on this success, the team recently applied their innovative approach to produce a comprehensive state-of-the-nation report on antimicrobial resistance prevalence and other respiratory pathogens.
