Blueprint Biosecurity Enters into Partnership with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(Above: Image of the Aerosol Test Facility)

As the threat landscape continues to evolve, the need for additional layers of protection to help keep occupied indoor spaces resilient against airborne pathogens remains a priority. Air cleaning technologies such as ventilation and filtration play a critical role in protecting indoor spaces and are central to standards and frameworks designed to reduce the transmission of airborne disease. However, existing strategies may not be sufficient to protect every indoor space from every potential threat. This Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will explore additional air treatment technologies that could help provide an added layer of protection in spaces where existing engineering solutions may be limited or insufficient. 

Over the next two years, a team of researchers led by Katherine Ratliff, Ph.D., at the EPA will utilize their world-class Aerosol Test Facility to evaluate several air treatment interventions. These tests will evaluate the effectiveness of far-UVC, glycol vapors, and other antimicrobial vapors in their ability to inactivate various types of infectious airborne pathogens under different conditions. This work is an important step toward understanding whether these tools are effective and whether they can be used appropriately and in combination with existing clean air strategies.

(Above: Images from inside the Aerosol Test Facility chamber)

This partnership will help inform next steps for the potential expansion of the antimicrobial vapors workstream, which currently includes our glycol vapors work evaluating propylene glycol, triethylene glycol, and dipropylene glycol as potential pandemic countermeasures. Initial tests will evaluate the efficacy of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) against airborne microbes under controlled conditions. HOCl is an active ingredient commonly found in cosmetic skin care products and used in select antimicrobial and sanitation applications. Additional research is needed to determine whether HOCl and other antimicrobial vapors may have potential applications as part of a broader layered approach to indoor air treatment. 

Additionally, this partnership will support a new far-UVC initiative that will evaluate the impact of air mixing on efficacy. Air mixing can play an important role in how airborne pathogens move through indoor environments, influencing whether pathogens remain concentrated in certain areas or are more evenly distributed throughout a space. Understanding this relationship is important for assessing how far-UVC technologies may perform in real-world settings. While far-UVC has been shown to inactivate airborne pathogens in various studies, its effectiveness may depend in part on how air moves through a room, how quickly pathogens enter the treatment zone, and how far-UVC interacts with existing clean air strategies such as ventilation and filtration. 

As Blueprint Biosecurity continues to advance work on layered approaches to indoor biosecurity, results from these tests will help inform future deployment guidance and support the evidence base needed for safer and more resilient indoor spaces.