UNMC’s Josh Santarpia, PhD, a leading expert in aerosol transmission of disease and detection of bioaerosols, has been chosen as part of a multidisciplinary team of experts from industry, academia and public health who will take part in a national research program that uses smart building technology to reduce disease through cleaner indoor air.
Dr. Santarpia is a professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at UNMC, associate director for academic affairs at the Global Center for Health Security and director for UNMC’s Medical Science Interdepartmental Area graduate programs.
Poppy Health, a pioneer in indoor environmental health and energy technology, has been awarded up to $39 million by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for the project.
Dr. Santarpia is lead investigator for the project’s sensing technology.
The effort, known as Strategic Control of bioAerosols in Learning Environments (SCALE), will develop and deploy the first real-time, building-integrated system to detect and reduce exposure to indoor air hazards such as allergens, molds, bacteria and viruses.
Said Sam Molyneux, overall lead for the SCALE project and co-CEO at Poppy Health, “SCALE is not just about building transformative sensors — we’re reimagining how buildings protect human health.”
Dr. Santarpia said: “We’re integrating state-of-the-art aerosol collection, nucleic acid processing and detection technologies to develop the world’s first real-time bioaerosol identification system to find disease-causing particles and prevent illness. This revolutionary technology will give buildings the power to reduce the burden of disease, day in and day out.”
The system integrates three core components: real-time biosensing, an intelligent risk controller software platform and smart building automation. It initially will be deployed in schools across four climate zones. The program will set a gold-standard for evidence-based indoor air quality interventions, establishing rigorous validation to ensure proven improvements for the students and educators.
This research was funded in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The views and conclusions contained in this article are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the United States Government.