The Airborne Infection Resilience (AIR) Program

Airborne Infection Resilience (AIR): Delivering a breakthrough against airborne disease

WHAT IS AIR?

The Airborne Infection Resilience (AIR) Program is a coordinated research program focused on speeding up the widespread adoption of far-UVC.

Our recently-released Blueprint for Far-UVC documents the most up-to-date understanding of the far-UVC field and provides detailed recommendations to advance the technology from the lab to widespread deployment. The Airborne Infection Resilience (AIR) Program is an ambitious, coordinated five year effort to implement those recommendations. AIR has grown out of two years of close collaboration and consultation with the leading experts and stakeholders across all disciplines in the field.

The need for the AIR program

Our Vulnerability to Airborne Disease

Airborne infectious disease remains one of humanity’s most significant challenges. In 2021, respiratory infections resulted in 11.3 million deaths and experts estimate a nearly 25% probability of a pandemic as deadly as COVID-19 occurring within the next decade.

Our current tools against airborne disease are insufficient. As quick as they were developed, COVID-19 vaccines still took a year to reach widespread distribution. Solutions like filtration and ventilation are important but cannot easily meet air cleaning standards on their own.

Far-UVC (ultraviolet light of wavelengths between 200-235nm, typically deployed at 222nm) represents a potentially transformative solution for continuous environmental inactivation of airborne pathogens.

The promise of far-UVC

Far-UVC can inactivate a wide range of pathogens

Studies have shown strong inactivation against viruses like influenza and coronaviruses, bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and even pathogenic fungi like Candida auris, suggesting far-UVC may be useful against both familiar and novel threats.

Far-UVC installations can be made safe by design

Far-UVC is absorbed by proteins in the outermost layers of the skin and eyes, allowing for higher safe exposure limits and safe operation in occupied spaces.

Far-UVC is energy-efficient

Modeling shows that far-UVC can be up to 450 times more efficient than ventilation and 40 percent more efficient than air purifiers in delivering clean, disinfected air.

Far-UVC is silent and practical

Far-UVC runs silently, requires far less space than portable air cleaners or ventilation ductwork, and is relatively simple to install.

Far-UVC is showing promise for preventing fomite and short-range transmission as well

While our far-UVC blueprint focuses on long-range airborne transmission, far-UVC also inactivates pathogens in the concentrated plumes that drive short-range transmission and on contaminated surfaces.

Far-UVC may help combat antimicrobial resistance

Far-UVC has been shown in laboratory studies to inactivate drug-resistant bacteria on surfaces and in air. It holds promise as a supplemental tool to reduce the burden of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens in high-risk settings.

Far-UVC’s barriers to adoption

Far-UVC devices are currently commercially available but are deployed at a very limited scale. Several things are needed to drive widespread adoption at the levels required to significantly reduce airborne disease and mitigate airborne pandemic risk:

Additional real-world evidence on effectiveness at reducing disease transmission
Clear evidence-based deployment guidelines backed by research
Additional characterization of biological effects with diverse populations
Technological innovation to help drive scale-up
Optimal installation designs

Workstream 1: Efficacy and Effectiveness

Conduct controlled bioaerosol chamber studies and computational fluid dynamics modeling to establish dosing and installation guidance
Conduct the first large-scale RCT of far-UVC effectiveness in approximately 50 real-world settings

Workstream 2: Safety

Verify far-UVC exposure limits through multiple human and animal studies
Measure indoor air chemistry effects in diverse environments
Build scientific consensus around safety parameters

Workstream 3: Communications and Deployment Guidance

Develop evidence-based implementation protocols for diverse settings
Create educational materials and evaluate communication strategies
Initiate a National Academies consensus study to serve as a trusted, objective authority

Airborne Infection Resilience (AIR): Delivering a breakthrough against airborne disease

WHAT IS AIR?