Medical University of Vienna
ORCID: 0000-0001-7571-0566Publishes on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research, SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing, Biosensors and Analytical Detection. 8 papers and 485 citations.
Add your photo, update your bio, and get notified when your ranking changes.
SARS-CoV-2 particles. In conclusion, this study illustrates the power of combining epidemiological analysis with deep viral genome sequencing to unravel the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and to gain fundamental insights into mutational dynamics and transmission properties.
Abstract Superspreading events shape the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we provide a national-scale analysis of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in Austria, a country that played a major role for virus transmission across Europe and beyond. Capitalizing on a national epidemiological surveillance system, we performed deep whole-genome sequencing of virus isolates from 576 samples to cover major Austrian SARS-CoV-2 clusters. Our data chart a map of early viral spreading in Europe, including the path from low-frequency mutations to fixation. Detailed epidemiological surveys enabled us to calculate the effective SARS-CoV-2 population bottlenecks during transmission and unveil time-resolved intra-patient viral quasispecies dynamics. This study demonstrates the power of integrating deep viral genome sequencing and epidemiological data to better understand how SARS-CoV-2 spreads through populations. Graphical Abstract
Abstract SARS-CoV-2 surveillance is crucial to identify variants with altered epidemiological properties. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) provides an unbiased and complementary approach to sequencing individual cases. Yet, national WBE surveillance programs have not been widely implemented and data analyses remain challenging. We deep-sequenced 2,093 wastewater samples representing 95 municipal catchments, covering >57% of Austria’s population, from December 2020 to September 2021. Our Va riant Qu antification in S e wage pipeline designed for Ro bustness ( VaQuERo ) enabled us to deduce variant abundance from complex wastewater samples and delineate the spatiotemporal dynamics of the dominant Alpha and Delta variants as well as regional clusters of other variants of concern. These results were cross validated by epidemiological records of >130,000 individual cases. Finally, we provide a framework to predict emerging variants de novo and infer variant-specific reproduction numbers from wastewater. This study demonstrates the power of national-scale WBE to support public health and promises particular value for countries without dense individual monitoring. Graphical Abstract