When a public building catches fire, its built-in systems automatically respond: Smoke alarms blare, sprinklers turn on and occupants quickly evacuate.
What if the life-threatening danger isn’t fire, but invisible airborne contaminants that can make occupants sick? Could a similar smart-building system monitor and improve air quality indoors, where Americans spend 90% of their time?
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has awarded a contract of up to $40 million to a multi-institutional research team led by Virginia Tech. Washington University in St. Louis is leading one of three technical areas and will receive $15 million to develop commercial-ready devices that disrupt the transmission of infectious disease.
The WashU project is led by Rajan Chakrabarty, PhD, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, in collaboration with Varro Life Sciences, a St. Louis-based biotech startup. Researchers at the University of Michigan, Yale and Emory universities also will receive subawards from WashU.
“McKelvey Engineering and WashU are delighted to be a part of this nationwide ambitious research, which has the potential to change how we deal with airborne pathogens and have a positive impact on human health,” said Aaron F. Bobick, dean and the James M. McKelvey Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU. “Rajan Chakrabarty and his collaborators have already made fundamental contributions in this domain, and we are excited to see how this technology evolves. I am also particularly pleased that this grant will accelerate the deployment of the technology through the work of Varro Life Sciences.”
The research project, called Bioaerosol Risk Assessment interVention Engineering (BRAVE), aims to reduce respiratory illnesses such as cold, flu and asthma by 25% with an innovative clean-air version of a fire suppression system. Ultimately, the team plans to commercialize its research so that the whole-building system — including biosensors, software and engineering interventions — becomes a turnkey technology widely available for installation in buildings.
“Developing a cost-efficient technology that is capable of detecting tens of viruses, fungi, allergens and bacteria in indoor air in real time is nothing short of a moonshot,” said Chakrabarty, WashU’s team lead. “It’s a grand challenge, but it’s exciting in the sense that here is an opportunity to really push the envelope of what is possible. If successful, this technology can create a prevention mechanism to avert future pandemics.”