Virair project has successfully weighed single viral particles and with a very high throughput, of up to 30 particles per hour, well beyond state of the art. We have a working prototype of the technology, so the impact will not only be that of a successful outcome technology, but also the new generated knowledge by all actors that will be able to have access to the final commercial instrument and use it in the diverse areas involved: virology, bacteriology, medicine, toxicology. Introducing in the market a preventive tool for detecting viruses and to overcome critical barriers in the HAIs will increase confidence in the technology applicability to these other areas.
VirAIR has an important potential impact on society, as the commercialization of the here proposed novel technology will directly impact on patients, public health systems and governments (responsible for facing epidemics) and economy, as an efficient, quantitative early alert system for infectious agents as proposed here, could avoid drastic measures as confinement and business closures when they are not necessary. The main beneficiaries of VirAIR technology will be health care systems, by reducing costs associated to hospital infections and patients hospitalizations due to the reduced health risks, as well as the society as a whole in case of a pandemic as COVID-19. Also, rapid and accurate identification of emerging pathogens is essential to avoid outbreaks and pandemic spread of new diseases. A key step will be the identification of pathogens quickly, easily and effectively when it is in the environment, as a method to prevent spread of the infection. This is addressed with this novel route to detect viral particles in air through their intrinsic physical properties, alerting the health systems that can then take measures to reduce its propagation based in reliable data. Providing a novel tool for detecting pathogens in air will positively impact in the economy of European Health services, since preventive medicine will contribute to reduce the number of infected patients and as consequence, reducing costs associated to hospitalizations, treatments, drugs, etc., avoiding the lock-down of cities and thus avoiding to block the global economic activity.
VirAIR will accelerate the translation of scientific discovery into commercial technology through the developed business plan and investors’ attraction plan. Being at the forefront of the application of nanomechanics for the monitoring of pathogens in air poses a formidable opportunity to increase competitiveness of the European biotech industry and to offer new market opportunities to innovative companies, creating new employment opportunities.
