STTR Phase I: Development and Commercialization of the SafeLight Family of Antimicrobial Materials for Combatting the COVID-19 Pandemic and Hospital Acquired Infections

该小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是开发新的抗菌材料，以减少有害细菌和病毒在各种环境中的传播，特别是针对SARS-CoV-2的自我消毒个人防护设备，以对抗COVID-19大流行。虽然这些抗菌材料主要用于医院，但也可能影响生物防御;军事设施;食品加工，包装和服务行业;废水处理设施;日托和长期护理设施;甚至个人家庭。除了目前的流行病，这项技术还可以解决医院获得性感染，估计每年增加300 - 450亿美元的医疗保健费用;以及食品服务业，仅诺如病毒食源性感染就造成美国每年约58亿B美元的经济损失。 拟议的技术为当前的COVID-19挑战及以后提供了重大益处。拟议的项目将开发基于光动力失活的光活化表面消毒材料，该材料产生单线态氧-一种高度反应性但对环境无害的物种-对微生物造成非特异性损伤，使其失去活性。技术挑战是：1）开发能够在暴露于光时产生单线态氧但在制造过程的高温下稳定的化学物质，为此我们将从已知的一类化合物开始; 2）开发用于生产新开发的光反应性化合物并将其嵌入相关材料中的方法，特别是用于制造个人防护设备;以及3）对杀病毒（对抗冠状病毒）、抗菌、抗真菌和杀孢子用途的工艺功效进行评估。该奖项反映了NSF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 of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the development of new antimicrobial materials to reduce the spread of harmful bacteria and viruses in a variety of settings, particularly for self-disinfecting personal protection equipment against SARS-CoV-2 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. While primarily intended for use in hospitals, these antimicrobial materials can also impact bio-defense; military facilities; food processing, packaging, and service industries; wastewater treatment facilities; daycare and long-term care facilities; and even personal households. Beyond the current pandemic, this technology can address hospital-acquired infections, which add an estimated $30-45 billion to health care costs every year; and the food service industry, where norovirus foodborne infections alone account for an economic loss of about $5.8 B annually in the United States. The proposed technology offers significant benefit for the current COVID-19 challenge and beyond. The proposed project will develop light-activated surface-disinfecting materials based on photodynamic inactivation that generates singlet oxygen – a highly reactive yet environmentally benign species – to cause non-specific damage to microbes, rendering them inactive. The technical challenges are: 1) the development of chemical species capable of producing singlet oxygen upon exposure to light, but stable at the high temperatures of manufacturing processes, for which we will start with a known class of compounds; 2) the development of a method for the production and embedding of the newly-developed photoreactive compounds within relevant materials, particularly for the manufacture of personal protection equipment; and 3) evaluation of process efficacy for virucidal (against coronaviruses), antibacterial, antimycotic and sporicidal use.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.