AirAnswers® Confirms Airborne COVID-19 in Breakthrough Collaborative Study with The University of Chicago and Provides a Potential Peace-of-Mind for a Return to Normality
Press release 7/2/2020
AirAnswers® is the only company providing airborne allergen detection either through physicians, industrial hygienists, indoor air quality professionals, home resale, or direct to consumer. It has developed a highly sensitive patented technology for testing and measuring biological agents in the air, including viruses and specifically SARS-CoV-2. Inspirotec has previously shown feasibility for the detection of airborne viruses in collaboration with US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC), the United States’ principal research and developmental resource for non-medical chemical and biological defense.
AirAnswers’ vision is to improve health and happiness by finding allergy and mold solutions in transforming the home environment critical to our wellbeing. Our mission is to deliver the most personalized prevention and management solutions for allergies, asthma, and respiratory conditions.
The company announced today that its currently available commercial air sampling device (AirAnswers®) has the capability to capture airborne COVID-19. This was shown in a small-scale feasibility study performed in collaboration with Jayant Pinto, MD, and his associates at The University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, where the testing for virus captured by the device was done.
Preliminary results of the ongoing study suggest that the AirAnswers® ä technology can be deployed to establish the exposure to COVID-19. “Our data show proof of principle of the ability of this device to detect viral RNA in the air in the hospital,” said Dr. Pinto, who added, “We believe this will allow us to better understand how virus is present in the air and ultimately reduce risk of contracting COVID-19.” AirAnswers® will be using state-of-the-art real-time thermal cyclers to test samples within its new BSL-2 (biosafety level 2) rated laboratories.
As a simple, plug and play device, no professional skill is required for its deployment. The fact that inhalable particles in the air are being measured means that this is potentially a direct method of determination of risk of infection. “This technology can offer peace-of-mind as the world returns to its new normal,” said President and CEO, Tom Brya.
“This data could be used to get support for large-scale deployment of the AirAnswers® ä device for COVID-19 testing, cleaning validation, and on-going monitoring. The fact that we have already carried out the largest ever survey of airborne allergens and microbiome profiles in homes is evidence of the scalability of our technology. This would then be a powerful tool in eradicating the main source of spread of the disease, namely, by community-based transmission.” said Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Julian Gordon, PhD. Airionex air cleaning systems will be deploying the AirAnswers® system for COVID-19 testing across commercial clients with our laboratory services. The two companies are now teaming up to create and validate clean air across a multitude of industries.
Based on these results, a follow-up large scale study is planned to provide additional insight of the application of the AirAnswers® platform technology.
About AirAnswers®
AirAnswers® is the only company providing airborne allergen detection either through physicians, industrial hygienists, indoor air quality professionals, home resale, or direct to consumer. It has developed a highly sensitive patented technology for testing and measuring biological agents in the air, including viruses and specifically SARS-CoV-2. https://AirAnswers.com/.
AirAnswers® has an extensive portfolio of patents* as well as publications in peer-reviewed literature.
*US patents 8,038,944, 9,216,421, 9,360,402, 9,481,904, 9,618,431 as well as patents and application world-wide.
Contact:
support@airanswers.com