SBIR Phase I: Development of a Low-cost, Scalable Sampler for Airborne COVID-19 Virus Detection

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种准确、强大的工具，用于采样空气中的病毒、细菌、真菌和其他生物气溶胶。现有抽样技术的主要缺陷限制了其在抗击COVID-19大流行方面的广泛应用，而拟议的技术可以为大流行缓解工作提供实质性信息。拟议仪器的客户包括公共卫生专业人员，流行病学家，研究传染性和过敏性空气传播疾病的医学研究人员，国土安全和军事，工业卫生学家，研究建筑和自然环境微生物组的空气学家，以及室内空气质量调查员。这项技术的应用范围将超出当前的COVID-19大流行。该SBIR一期项目建议开发一种急需的诊断工具，用于调查导致COVID-19的病毒SARS-CoV-2是否存在并以气溶胶（包括亚微米颗粒）的形式传播。现有的空气采样器在捕获小于1微米的颗粒方面效率非常低，采样本身会破坏细胞壁并破坏基因组物质。该技术具有独特的冷凝生长管（CGT），可以收集和浓缩5nm-10µm范围内的几乎所有空气中颗粒，并立即保存DNA/RNA，使其更有效地采样雾化病毒以进行基因组恢复。然而，传统的CGT采样器体积太大，价格昂贵，难以操作，无法进行广泛的COVID-19监测。这个SBIR项目将加速开发一种简单、低成本、可扩展的病毒采样器，供受过最少培训的技术人员广泛使用。该项目将制造几个原型，并在实验室和在医疗设施、养老院和/或公共交通工具等关键室内地点对空气中传播的SARS-CoV-2颗粒进行采样，展示其功效。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of an accurate, robust tool for sampling airborne viruses, bacteria, fungi and other bioaerosols. Major deficiencies with existing sampling technologies limit their broad utility in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and the proposed technology could substantially inform pandemic mitigation efforts. Customers for the proposed instrumentation include public health professionals, epidemiologists, medical researchers studying infectious and allergenic airborne diseases, homeland security and the military, industrial hygienists, aerobiologists studying the microbiome of the built and natural environment, and indoor air quality investigators. This technology will have applications beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop an urgently needed diagnostic tool for investigating whether SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes COVID-19, is present and transmitted as an aerosol, including as submicron particles. Existing air samplers are grossly inefficient in capturing particles smaller than 1 micrometer, and the sampling itself can damage the cellular walls and destroy genomic material. The technology proposed has a unique condensation growth tube (CGT) that collects and concentrates virtually all airborne particles from 5nm-10µm and instantly preserves the DNA/RNA, making it vastly more effective at sampling aerosolized viruses for genomic recovery. However, conventional CGT samplers are too large, expensive, and difficult to operate for widespread COVID-19 monitoring. This SBIR project will accelerate development of a simple, low-cost, scalable virus sampler for broad deployment by minimally-trained technicians. The project will fabricate several prototypes and demonstrate their efficacy both in the laboratory and in sampling airborne SARS-CoV-2 particles in key indoor locations such as medical facilities, nursing homes and/or public transportation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.