Model systems for exchange of liquid between different aerosol sources: application in disease risk during aerosol therapies

该项目的目的是评估过程，使气溶胶液滴可以拿起另一种液体的成分从相互作用，无论是与第二个气溶胶流或与液体表面。工业合作伙伴对该过程感兴趣，以了解这种机制是否可能在基于雾化器的治疗期间产生额外的感染性气溶胶（例如，由于患者中的COVID感染）。这些都是基本的科学问题，为了解决这些问题，气溶胶的物理和化学方面需要与呼吸道感染的生物学相结合。具体而言，这个问题需要在气溶胶混合过程中液滴之间的液体运输和气道表面上的治疗性气溶胶的沉积建模和实验。这些问题对工业界来说非常重要，特别是在开发安全的药物气雾剂疗法方面。以前，由于对这一领域缺乏科学认识，导致对气雾剂治疗对其他患者和医疗保健提供者的相对安全性的误导性指导。

The aim of this project is to assess processes whereby aerosol droplets can pick up components of another liquid from interaction either with a second aerosol stream or with a liquid surface. The process is of interest to the industrial partner in order to understand whether it is plausible that such a mechanism could produce additional infectious aerosol (for example, due to COVID infection in the patient) during nebuliser-based therapy. These are fundamental scientific questions, and to address them aspects of the physics and chemistry of aerosols need to be combined with the biology of respiratory infections. Specifically, this question requires modelling and experiments on the transport of liquids between droplets during aerosol mixing and on the deposition of therapeutic aerosols on airway surfaces. These questions are of tremendous importance to industry, especially in developing safe pharmaceutical aerosol therapies. Previously, a lack of scientific understanding in this area has resulted in misleading guidance with regards to the relative safety of aerosol therapies to other patients and healthcare providers.