Adam Gushgari

Expertise: Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

Starting his career in land development engineering, Adam found a passion for implementing novel sustainable practices within the design of the built environment. Following the passing of a friend to an opioid overdose, he changed the direction of his career to focus on the emerging field of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). As a PhD student in Arizona State University’s Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering he pioneered some of the first U.S. projects detecting opioid consumption indicators in wastewater through LC-MS/MS analysis and developed novel methods of modeling this data to estimate the number of anticipated overdose and overdose-deaths. Following publication of his research, he helped develop the first publicly accessible WBE campaign in the United States in Tempe, Arizona to assist first responders in identifying hotspots of narcotic use within the city and develop an early warning system for fentanyl and its potent synthetic analogues carfentanil and sufentanil.

In 2019 he co-founded the WBE startup company AquaVitas LLC and began commercialization of the novel scientific field. The company’s co-founders developed some of the first viral assays for wastewater detection, which allowed a rapid response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in early 2020. In 2021, Adam served as the principal investigator and primary project manager for a collaboration between AquaVitas, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Together they developed the first nationwide wastewater monitoring campaign for SARS-CoV-2 and established some of the processes and “best management practices” that continue to be applied to federal wastewater surveillance projects today.

With nearly a decades’ experience in the WBE field, Adam continues to push the boundaries of the science to adapt the platform to new aspects of individual and community health. He believes that leveraging wastewater surveillance methods to obtain near-real time data on a community health profile will become common practice in the future and will expand far beyond monitoring of narcotics consumption and communicable disease surveillance. That this novel tool will enable community stakeholders and decision-makers to create positive and sustainable impacts to the lives and well-being of all individuals – regardless of economic or social status.