Rice research group spearheads wastewater testing for measles

By Ramya Motati     4/22/25 10:29pm

Amid a historic measles outbreak in West Texas, Rice researchers partnered with the city of Houston to monitor wastewater for the highly contagious virus.

Over 624 cases of measles have been reported since Jan. 20, with 64 hospitalizations and two deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 due to widespread vaccination. A majority of the cases in the outbreak are tied to people with unknown or unvaccinated status, according to Texas DSHS data.

The Texas DSHS has reported four cases of measles in Harris County, which were unrelated to the outbreak in West Texas. Two cases were of Upshur County residents.

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Lauren Stadler, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and her research team have joined these governmental agencies and health organizations to track and update the exact statistics of the measles outbreak and trace its spread across the nation. 

“We have built up probably one of the most advanced citywide wastewater surveillance systems in the country,” Stadler said.

Stadler’s work focuses on wastewater-based epidemiology, integrated water systems management, and other related topics. Stadler has been working with the Houston Health Department since 2020 to monitor water systems.

The system, Stadler said, was able to detect the first two cases within the wastewater of Houston. The entire system consists of 38 wastewater plants across the city of Houston. 

Stadler, along with two other Rice professors, leads the Houston Wastewater Epidemiology system, a collaborative between the Houston Health Department, Houston Public Works and Rice. 

The Houston Wastewater Epidemiology system was one of the first National Wastewater Surveillance Systems recognized by the Centers for Disease Control as a Wastewater Center of Excellence, leading other public health departments in the region. Stadler said that the initiative at Rice began in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“It evolved to include many other pathogens, and as a team, we’ve really spent a lot of time thinking about how we prioritize what targets to monitor for,” Stadler said.

One challenge of detecting measles is differentiating between the vaccine and the actual virus, Stadler said.

“When you get your MMR vaccine, it’s actually an attenuated live virus,” Stadler said. “It’s nonpathogenic, but it is a live virus. So when you get vaccinated, you can end up shedding some of that virus into the wastewater.” 

For measles, Stadler said she and her team developed an assay, or analytical procedure, a year ago. The assay detects measles viruses within the wastewater and distinguishes between the wild-type and vaccine-strain measles. 

Stadler said she envisions the future possibilities of the wastewater system as preventative as well. She states that wastewater monitoring can also be used for things beyond pathogens such as overall community health, community stress, prescription use and even diet. 

 “Wastewater provides more informtion at a community level about what’s circulating, and so it could help for future kinds of decisions and design vaccine development,” Stadler said.

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