Forensics professor Dr. Chris Kyle, Trent alumna Audrey Wilson, and Trent researchers are uncovering important public health insights in unexpected places
There’s more than one way to test for COVID-19 in the community. Dr. Christopher Kyle, director of Trent’s Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre (NRDPFC) and acting chair of Forensic Science at Trent, is leading analysis that is at the forefront of our communities’ response to COVID-19, while also creating critical career-building experiences for students and recent graduates.
Trent Forensic Science graduate, Audrey Wilson’14 is playing a key role with Professor Kyle exploring one such testing method as part of the Trent University team contributing to the Ontario Wastewater Surveillance Initiative.
“Studies have shown that wastewater surveillance can actually detect if people are shedding the virus before they have symptoms, so it’s another level of monitoring how much COVID is in the community,” says Audrey, who now works as a research assistant at the NRDPFC, which is performing the analyses for Peterborough Public Health.
Audrey gained experience in the field through a fourth-year undergraduate thesis project analyzing waterbodies for amphibian pathogens. “The process is pretty similar to the wastewater work in that you are analyzing the solid material from water in order to detect small pieces of DNA or RNA that are left behind from the pathogen or virus you’re trying to detect.”
