Award

Rapid, real-time bioaerosol identification is a key aspect in preventive measures for infectious disease outbreaks, e.g. SARS-CoV-2 or tuberculosis. Current screening tools are either non-specific, or are slow, costly, and reagent burdened. As with most respiratory pathogens, such diseases are primarily spread through human discharge of pathogen-containing droplets created by coughing, sneezing or even normal breathing. The ability to rapidly, accurately, and affordably screen environment for a wide range of aerosolized pathogens arising from agricultural sources and human exhaled breath is critical to control the spread of these types of communicable diseases. Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful analytical technique for fast identification of biomolecules because of its high speed, specificity, and sensitivity. Real-time analysis of airborne particles containing pathogen organisms by field-portable MS-based system will help identify infected individuals and improve response and management to mitigate disease spread. The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a field-portable mass spectrometry-based diagnostic/screening system that analyzes respired aerosols on-the-fly and provides rapid, accurate information about the infectiousness of the patient at extremely low cost-per-sample. The proposed system that combines efficient bioaerosol collection coupled with rapid processing and miniature mass spectrometer will provide a novel, non-invasive methodology for sensitive detection of infectious persons. The capability to conduct automated and constant air monitoring for presence of aerosolized pathogens will radically improve the ability to deal with pandemic threats