Project Summary/Abstract
Viral transmission from an infected person or an animal to a new host can occur by direct or indirect routes.
During indirect transmission, contaminated surfaces can play an important role. Although there are a number of
methods for disease transmission in healthcare facilities, aerial transmission is often considered an important
route for many organisms. The aerial path followed by pathogens from the source to recipients or surfaces and
their viability upon impaction is affected by many factors, including room air exchange rates and air properties
that may further challenge aerosolized bioparticles, including viruses. As ventilation systems are practically
ubiquitous in the build environment, the effect of air properties on the infectivity and transport of aerosolized
viruses is an important topic for study to reduce the spread of infectious viral particles.
The proposed project is the first known comprehensive study on the impact of environmental conditions
including temperature, humidity, and air velocity on the droplet size, spread, and
deposition/resuspension of airborne viruses. The optimization of environmental conditions that lead to
improved ventilation designs or mitigation strategies could significantly reduce the entrainment and spread of
viable infectious viruses in the built environment. The PIs' have previously shown that a combined modeling and
sampling approach is successful to mitigate transport of airborne infectious microorganisms in a ventilated facility
The goal of this proposal is to understand the effect of environmental conditions on the transmission, deposition
and resuspension of aerosolized virus particles and provide realistic measures to reduce their spread in the
ventilation airflow in nosocomial and healthcare settings. The proposed goal will be achieved by combining
betacoronavirus aerosol collection with biolayer interferometry, molecular dynamics and computational airflow
modeling in model experiments and field testing. The research plan is based on three fundamental questions
about 1) the effect of environmental conditions and surface characteristics on the size distribution, deposition,
and resuspension of virus aerosols using biolayer interferometry, molecular dynamics modeling and
computational flow simulation to visualize the airflow patterns in a 3 scale model hospital room. Elucidating the
relationship between viable virus deposition and resuspension is the key for developing means to reduce
transmission of viruses through airborne exposure; 2) using bioaerosol collectors to determine the rate and
distance aerosolized viruses can spread in different environmental conditions analyzed by cell culture and
quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR); and 3) how mitigation efforts based on optimized ventilation can
be applied to hospital settings. This innovative project will help develop and implement interdisciplinary
ventilation design guidelines to educate scientists and engineers about bioaerosol transport and environmental
effects on the spread of viruses in an effort to improve understanding of infectious disease considerations in
design, management, and monitoring of healthcare facilities and other built environment.
