Please give a lot of attention and participation from the members of the Mechanical Engineering department.

▣ Title: Bioaerosol  monitoring and detection  techniques

▣ Speaker: Dr. Amin Piri

▣ Affiliation: 연세대학교 기계공학과

▣ Date: 2023. 3. 24.(Fri) 16:00

▣ Venue: 제2공학관 B040호

▣ Abstract

Bio-aerosols  are  suspension  of  biological  particulate  matter  (PM)  and  include  a wide  range  of living  and  non-living  particles  such  as  bacteria,  virus  and  fungi. Exposure  to  bio-aerosols  may lead  to  various  health  complications.  The  severe  acute  respiratory  syndrome  coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)  outbreak  in  2019  triggered global  concern  and  emphasized  the  importance  of virus  monitoring.  Currently, considerable  efforts  are  being  expended  toward  reliable  detection and  quantification  of bio-aerosol.  Air  sampling  is  the  first  step toward  characterizing  viral exposure.  Since  many  bio-detection  techniques  require  bio-particles  to  be  in  a liquid suspended state,  electrostatics  aerosol-to-hydrosol  (ATH)  sampling  is  a favorable  option. Electrostatic  precipitation  (EP)  is  an  efficient  technique  because  it  causes  less damage to viruses  and  has  a greater  relative  recovery  of  viruses  as  well  as  a lower  pressure  drop. However,  there  are  several  challenges  to  properly  evaluate  bio-aerosol samples.  Initially,  the collection  procedures  must  ensure  the  survival  or  biological  activity  of  bio-particles  during and  after  collection.  On  the  other  hand,  even during a viral  outbreak,  there  is  a relatively low  concentration  of  the  virus  in  air  (10³–10⁴viral  genome  copies/m³ ),  which  makes detection  and  monitoring  very  challenging because  the  limit  of  detection  of  most  polymerase chain  reaction  (PCR)  devices  is  approximately  10³viral  genome  copies/mL.  In  addition,  the current  bio-aerosol detection  methods  require  sample  preparation  steps  taken  place  in well-equipped  laboratory  facilities  after  air  sampling  and  therefore,  cannot  meet  the  needs  of rapid  on-site  detection.  Thus,  it  is  imperative  to  address  these  challenges  for  an  efficient measurement  of  pathogenic  bio-aerosols  and  prevention  of  future pandemics.  In  this  seminar, the  latest  advances  on  bio-aerosol  monitoring  strategies  involving  development  of  efficient  air samplers,  liquid-phase  high-throughput microfluidic  chip-based  enrichment  devices  and detection  systems  are  introduced  and  an  strategy  for  on-site continuous  sampling  and detection is  proposed.