{"id":2306,"date":"2020-05-14T09:21:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T13:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/?page_id=2306"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:15:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:15:40","slug":"reynolds-biobot","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/internship-impacts\/reynolds-biobot\/","title":{"rendered":"Detecting Drug Consumption with Wastewater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-1229 profile type-profile status-publish hentry\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/profile\/david-reynolds\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\">\n\t\t\t<img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2018\/07\/2018_Reynolds-David-150x150.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"David Reynolds headshot\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2018\/07\/2018_Reynolds-David-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2018\/07\/2018_Reynolds-David-100x100.jpeg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\t\t<\/figure>\n\n\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">David Reynolds<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Instructor, University of New Hampshire<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>Project Partner<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/biobot.io\/\">Biobot Analytics<\/a>, Winter and Spring 2020<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Summary<\/strong>: <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wastewater samples collected from city sewer networks can provide useful information about population health, from prevalence of COVID-19 to the amount of illicit drug consumption within a community. But how accurate are estimates derived from wastewater data? David helped Biobot Analytics quantify the uncertainty around their opioid usage estimates using Bayesian statistics in order to support public health interventions. David valued the opportunity to use statistics to tackle challenging public problems and learned what working at a start-up company is like. He also created a website on GitHub explaining his statistical approach. Following the internship, David continued working on a contract project with Biobot Analytics as they pivoted to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2308\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2308\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2020\/05\/Reynolds-image-for-website-636x347.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"347\" class=\"wp-image-2308 size-medium\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2020\/05\/Reynolds-image-for-website-636x347.png 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2020\/05\/Reynolds-image-for-website-768x419.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2020\/05\/Reynolds-image-for-website.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2308\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biobot Analytics uses sensors in sewage infrastructure to measure analytes uniquely associated with human fentanyl consumption (and excretion). In doing so, Biobot can infer the level of opioid consumption in a catchment (population serving part of a sewer system). For David&#8217;s URBAN internship, he helped Biobot quantify the uncertainty around their drug consumption estimates using Bayesian statistics. (Image credit: David Reynolds)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Project Deliverables<\/strong>: Created a <a href=\"https:\/\/dbomber60.github.io\/research\/hierarchical.html\">GitHub website<\/a> explaining how to use hierarchical modeling to incorporate the results of previous scientific research into a current study, using the work with Biobot as an example<span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Partner: Biobot Analytics, Winter and Spring 2020 Project Summary: Wastewater samples collected from city sewer networks can provide useful information about population health, from prevalence of COVID-19 to the amount of illicit drug consumption within a community. But how accurate are estimates derived from wastewater data? David helped Biobot Analytics quantify the uncertainty around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16791,"featured_media":0,"parent":1881,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4089,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2306\/revisions\/4089"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}