The Gates Foundation awarded two grants totaling $2 million to Scripps Research on July 2, 2026. The grants will support the development of artificial intelligence-enhanced, open-source wastewater surveillance and outbreak prediction systems for low- and middle-income countries.

The grants are part of the Modjadji Initiative, which aims to build affordable and scalable pathogen surveillance systems for low- and middle-income countries. Josh Levy, a senior project scientist at Scripps Research, is the leader for both grant projects. "We are very grateful to the Gates Foundation because these grants will allow us not only to expand the wastewater tools we've been developing, but also to use artificial intelligence to improve global health decision-making more broadly," Levy said.

One of the grants renews a 2023 Gates Foundation award, originally led by Scripps Research professor Kristian Andersen and Levy. This renewed grant involves collaboration with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Researchers will expand computational and laboratory methods for wastewater surveillance to monitor a broader range of pathogens. They will also adapt wastewater surveillance tools for use in streams, canals, and other surface waters impacted by human wastewater.

The team will expand the Freyja platform, an open-source wastewater analysis platform developed by the Andersen lab at Scripps Research, to detect additional infectious disease threats. The Freyja platform was widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers will optimize laboratory protocols and bioinformatics tools for use in low- and middle-income countries. "Our goal is for the laboratory protocols, computational tools and resulting data to remain openly available so they can be used by researchers and public health agencies around the world," Levy said.

The second grant is led by Levy and Scripps Research institute investigator Karthik Gangavarapu. This grant focuses on developing AI and machine learning approaches to integrate testing, sequencing, wastewater, and clinical data for outbreak prediction. The project will initially concentrate on South Africa and Zambia. Scripps Research will partner with the Zambian National Public Health Institute for this project.

The work in South Africa and Zambia will expand monitoring for diseases including measles and tuberculosis. In Zambia, the integrated platform will aim to identify cholera transmission hotspots and improve the understanding of community transmission risk for mpox. "Bringing these different sources of information together is essential for responding to emerging threats, and to prepare for the threats we haven't seen yet," Levy said.