HYDRA - Hydrogels for Aerosol Capture

气溶胶采样技术可以收集空气中的病原体进行分析和鉴定。干式采集的采集效率较低，并会通过撞击和脱水对样品造成损坏。设计保护生物气溶胶样本并优化活病原体回收的新材料将是革命性的。病毒和细菌已经进化成擅长入侵天然水凝胶，并在其中保持存活，这表明水凝胶具有一种天生的能力，可以维持生物气溶胶样本的生存能力。合成水凝胶具有可调节的物理化学性质，使精密工程能够完成这一任务。此外，目前存在的水环境允许生物检测来鉴定凝胶本身中的气雾剂。该项目将结合气溶胶科学、工程学和聚合物化学，生产具有软水凝胶成分的气溶胶捕获设备。主要问题包括：如何将这些材料与设备配对，以实现最佳收集？哪种聚合物化学可以捕获最多的生物气溶胶，而不会造成伤害？哪些检测内容的方法将允许远程监控？表面结构会影响收集吗？这些设备在现场的表现如何？通过解决这些问题，我们希望朝着一项重大的科学挑战迈出重要的一步：实时监测生物空气传播的威胁，以保护健康。

Aerosol sampling techniques can collect pathogens from the air for analysis and identification. Dry collection has poor collection efficiency and causes damage to the sample through impaction and dehydration. Engineering new materials that protect a bioaerosol sample and optimise recovery of viable pathogens would be transformative. Viruses and bacteria have evolved to become adept at invading, and remaining viable inside, natural hydrogels like mucus, suggesting hydrogels possess an innate ability to sustain the viability of a bioaerosol sample. Synthetic hydrogels have tuneable physicochemical properties to allow precision engineering for this task. Furthermore, the aqueous environment present allows bioassays for identification of aerosols within the gel itself. This project will combine aerosol science, engineering and polymer chemistry to generate aerosol capture devices with soft hydrogel components. Major questions include: How can the materials be paired with a device for optimal collection? What polymer chemistry captures the most bioaerosols without causing harm? Which approaches to assaying contents will allow for remote monitoring? Do Surface structures effect collection? How will these devices perform in the field? By addressing these questions, we hope to take a significant step towards a big scientific challenge: real-time monitoring of biological airborne threats for the protection of health.