Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show Dr. Sonia Grego, Ph.D. - Duke Smart Toilet Lab, Founding Director - Assoc Research Professor, Duke
Dr. Sonia Grego, Ph.D. is Associate Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at Duke University (https://ece.duke.edu/faculty/sonia-grego). Dr. Grego is also the Founding Director of the Duke Smart Toilet Lab (https://smarttoilet.pratt.duke.edu/), dedicated to the opportunities that data-rich human excreta offer to improve individual and public health. The objective of the organization is to empower individuals and groups in communal living with health information for early warning of disease, health and wellness, and management of chronic diseases through wastewater analysis, without any changes of daily habits. Dr. Grego is passionate about the opportunities that advanced sanitation technologies offer to improve global health and to provide a paradigm shift in health screening both for individuals and for communities. A major project of Dr. Grego’s research portfolio over the past 5 years, she has led the field testing of 10+ onsite sanitation technology prototypes from multiple organizations in international settings. She has managed year long deployments of sophisticated chemo-mechanical systems with electronic monitoring connected to wastewater pipes of buildings, ensuring no disruption of service to users while evaluating the treatment process performance. Dr. Grego has an M.S. from Università di Pisa (Italy) and a Ph.D. from University of Copenhagen (Denmark). Dr. Grego has also founded Coprata Inc. (https://coprata.com/) to commercialize technologies developed at Duke University, to detect or manage acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases, provide early warning of infectious disease and monitor personalized wellness.