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Developing a Rapid COVID-19 Air Detector with Dr. Joseph Puthussery, PhDListen to this episode from Global Health Affairs on Spotify. Dr. Joseph Puthussery, PhD from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) discusses developing a rapid and accurate pathogen Air Quality (pAQ) monitor for the detection of COVID-19. An interdisciplinary team from the McKelvey School of Engineering and the School of Medicine at WUSTL is responsible for creating the device, which has a reported accuracy of up to 83% in detecting coronavirus variants in the air and operates in real time producing a result within 5 minutes. Topics Discussed: Dr. Puthussery shares his academic background in civil engineering and environmental science and engineering His early work on construction-related projects as a civil engineer and his work making sustainable bricks for construction His master’s studies on solid waste management, and construction and demolition waste management and recycling His early interest in studying air pollution in relation to solid waste management His initial work on instrument development to measure air quality Oxidative potential (OP) of ambient particulate matter (PM) The importance of incorporating mass concentration as well as composition of PM in determining its toxicity. Developing an instrument that measures OP of PM in real time Postdoctoral work at WUSTL with the Aerosol Impacts & Research (AIR) Lab Developing a real time, mobile air sampling device to detect SARS-CoV-2 Interdisciplinary team involved in development of the instrument Challenges in developing the device Health policy and management implications Potential to detect other airborne viruses Breath aerosol analyzer for detection of SARS-CoV-2 Plans for integrating the environmental monitor and personal breath monitor Future research projects Read more about the device and Dr. Puthussery’s research: Real-time environmental surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 aerosols https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39419-z Air monitor can detect COVID-19 virus variants in about 5 minutes https://source.wustl.edu/2023/07/air-monitor-can-detect-covid-19-virus-variants-in-about-5-minutes/ New Device Can Detect Covid in the Air Within Five Minutes https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-device-can-detect-covid-in-the-air-within-five-minutes-180982550/ Animation of the device https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/32/56/325660cf-7fce-44bf-8306-cf13efbb7b94/f5c474f2_adobeexpress.gif Rapid Direct Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Aerosols in Exhaled Breath at the Point of Care https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.3c00512 Demonstration video of the breath analyzer https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acssensors.3c00512/suppl_file/se3c00512_si_002.mp4 Sources of cellular oxidative potential of water-soluble fine ambient particulate matter in the Midwestern United States https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389421027461?via%3Dihub Effect of Biomass Burning, Diwali Fireworks, and Polluted Fog Events on the Oxidative Potential of Fine Ambient Particulate Matter in Delhi, India https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/acs.est.2c02730

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