Public health surveillance · Stanford University and Emory University (WastewaterSCAN)
WastewaterSCAN
Academic wastewater monitoring network and public dashboard tracking a dozen pathogens across U.S. sewersheds.
WastewaterSCAN is a wastewater-based epidemiology monitoring network run by researchers at Stanford University and Emory University, in partnership with lab provider Verily Life Sciences. Like Biobot, it tests composite sewage samples from participating treatment plants to estimate community-level infection trends, since traces of pathogens shed by infected individuals concentrate in wastewater regardless of whether those people were ever clinically tested. WastewaterSCAN has expanded beyond SARS-CoV-2 to track roughly a dozen pathogens, including influenza A and B, RSV, mpox, norovirus, and human metapneumovirus, and publishes sewershed-level results publicly on its data dashboard rather than restricting them to paying subscribers. It is funded philanthropically, including by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, rather than operated as a commercial vendor, and is used by local health officials, researchers, and journalists to spot seasonal and emerging disease trends earlier than clinical case data alone would show.
At a glance
| Vendor | Stanford University and Emory University (WastewaterSCAN) |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free |
| Free tier | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Open source | No |
| Best for | Health officials, researchers, and journalists wanting free, public, multi-pathogen wastewater trend data. |
Pricing
Dashboard and published sewershed data are free and public; the program is philanthropically funded rather than sold commercially.
Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.
Features
- Public sewershed-level data dashboard
- Monitoring of roughly a dozen pathogens beyond SARS-CoV-2
- Influenza, RSV, mpox, and norovirus tracking
- Nationwide U.S. sampling network
- Academic research partnership (Stanford, Emory)
- Lab processing via Verily Life Sciences
- Freely published trend and level data
Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026