CECAM - Chamber for Environmental Control of Airborne Microorganisms

COVID-19大流行暴露了室内环境在感染传播中的重要作用。该病毒突出表明，在以下方面的知识存在巨大差距：气溶胶和液滴中的微生物如何在我们的建筑物中产生和传播，我们如何有效地测量和监测室内环境中的风险，以及如何使用环境设计和技术来控制对病原体的暴露。虽然目前的重点是呼吸道感染，但这一挑战适用于非常广泛的微生物，包括胃肠道病原体和环境微生物，其中暴露风险是由人类与建筑布局、通风、供暖和供水系统的相互作用驱动的。理解和应对这些挑战需要关于微生物与物理环境之间相互作用的新知识。已知建筑物中的微生物气溶胶来自人类来源（呼吸气溶胶、皮肤鳞屑）、建筑系统（来自水、排水和通风系统的气溶胶）、工业过程（废物和废水处理、农业活动）、自然环境（海洋、动物、植物病原体）和医疗程序（牙科、插管）。然而，我们对环境的工程设计如何决定微生物的产生，运输，沉积和控制知之甚少。除了微生物，人们越来越意识到，人类健康受到室内污染物的严重影响，许多建筑物通风不足，无法为居住者提供健康的条件。CECAM（气载微生物环境控制室）设施将提供一个新的多用户研究环境，可以在不同的室内环境条件下对气溶胶微生物进行受控实验。该设施将使关键的研究问题得到解决，涉及微生物气溶胶的来源和生存，测量和监测微生物气溶胶和污染物的方法，通风和房间布局对微生物气溶胶和其他污染物的分散和沉积的作用，开发有效的工程解决方案，包括个人防护设备，空气清洁和消毒设备，以及淋浴、热风干燥机、空调机组和排水系统等关键部件的更好设计。该设施将使研究在流体动力学和气溶胶科学与微生物学和室内空气化学的接口，这是由临床挑战和需要改善室内环境质量的建筑物在几乎每个社会部门的驱动。CECAM设施将提供一个综合的用户环境，将一个受控的生物防护室与专用的空气处理系统与一套环境传感器和生物气溶胶采样器结合起来，包括实时生物气溶胶采样。通过在设备齐全的微生物学实验室内的位置，并由专门的实验官员管理，CECAM设施将使学术用户，研究机构，NHS用户和行业能够进行强大而安全的实验。这将包括使用人类参与者进行实验的能力。

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how significant a role the indoor environment plays in the transmission of infection. The virus has highlighted how there are substantial gaps in knowledge relating to how microorganisms in aerosols and droplets are generated and dispersed in our buildings, how effectively we can measure and monitor risks in indoor environments, and how the design of the environment and the technologies within it can be used to control exposure to pathogens. While there is an immediate focus on respiratory infections, this challenge applies to a very wide range of microorganisms including gastroenteric pathogens and environmental microorganisms where exposure risks are driven by human interactions with the building layout, ventilation, heating and water systems. Understanding and tackling these challengers requires new knowledge about the interactions between microorganisms and the physical environment. Microbial aerosols in buildings are known to be released from human sources (respiratory aerosols, skin squame), building systems (aerosols from water, drainage and ventilation systems), industry processes (waste and waste water treatment, agricultural activities), the natural environment (sea, animals, plant pathogens) and medical procedures (dentistry, intubation). However we know very little about how the engineering design of the environment determines the generation, transport, deposition and control of microorganisms. Beyond microorganisms, there is growing awareness that human health is significantly affected by exposure to pollutants in indoor spaces and that many buildings are inadequately ventilated to provide healthy conditions for occupants. The CECAM (Chamber for Environmental Control of Airborne Microorganisms) facility will provide a new, multi-user research environment that can enable controlled experiments with aerosolised microorganisms under different indoor environmental conditions. The facility will enable key research questions to be addressed relating to sources and survival of microbial aerosols, methods for measuring and monitoring microbial aerosols and pollutants, the role of ventilation and room layouts on the dispersion and deposition of microbial aerosols and other pollutants, the development of effective engineering solutions including personal protective equipment, air cleaning and disinfection devices, and better designs of key components such as showers, hot air dryers, air conditioning units and drainage systems. The facility will enable research at the interfaces of fluid dynamics and aerosol sciences with microbiology and indoor air chemistry that is driven by clinical challenges and the need for improved indoor environmental quality in buildings across just about every sector of society. The CECAM facility will provide an integrated user environment that combines a controlled biocontainment chamber with dedicated air handling systems with a suite of environmental sensors and bioaerosol samplers including real-time bioaerosol sampling. Through location within a well-equipped microbiology laboratory and managed by a dedicated experimental officer, the CECAM facility will enable robust and safe experiments to be carried out by academic users, research organisations, NHS users and industry. This will include the ability for experiments to be carried out using human participants.