Direct-read monitor for airborne viral pathogens

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Aerosolized pathogens, such as Influenza viruses, can spread rapidly and silently throughout a population, causing severe outbreaks that can be difficult to control. Early detection of these airborne pathogens is key to controlling outbreaks, especially among vulnerable populations such as in hospitals, treatment centers or nursing homes. Yet available methods are neither rapid, nor portable. Current methods rely heavily on off-site laboratory analysis with detection using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) to detect pathogen antigens and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect pathogen nucleic acids in collected samples. This two-step process, collection followed by off-line laboratory analysis, significantly increases effort and time-to- detection. Moreover, traditional ELISA and PCR are complicated, and not amenable to automated detection of emerging outbreaks at the point of contact. Additionally, currently used bioaerosol collection methods tend to damage viral particles, making subsequent detection of viral antigens and nucleic acids difficult. These factors make current bioaerosol collection and detection systems suboptimal, and further renders them intractable for automated, real-time detection. Needed is a sensitive, portable, direct-reading, bioaerosol detection platform that can detect specific pathogens at the point of contact. Such an instrument would enable quick identification of outbreaks, and thereby enable rapid response to public health threats. Aerosol Devices Inc. is an early stage startup company that is developing an innovative bioaerosol collection system that is quiet, fully integrated, and inexpensive relative to traditional bioaerosol sampling systems. Using a gentle condensation collection approach that mimics the human lung, it produces high-quality, concentrated, small-volume liquid samples of viable bioaerosol pathogens that are ideally suited for microfluidic sensors. Likewise, Drs. Henry, Dandy, and Geiss at Colorado State University are actively developing innovative microfluidic electrochemical sensors to rapidly detect intact virus particles in biological samples. The electrochemical sensors are robust, inexpensive, and can provide near real-time feedback of the presence of ultralow concentrations of viral pathogens when used with liquid samples. Combining these two technologies will provide a unique solution for bioaerosol detection that addresses the current critical market need. In this Phase I STTR proposal, we will demonstrate a proof-of-principle system that combines the two innovative technologies to enable real-time detection of aerosolized viral particles. The proposed system synergizes Colorado State University strengths in infectious diseases, electrochemistry, and microfluidics with Aerosol Devices expertise in rapid and robust aerosol collection towards a single fully integrated system that can rapidly detect aerosolized pathogens, providing early warning of outbreaks and helping to save lives.