A research team led by Virginia Tech, with participation from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), has secured a federal contract worth up to $40 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The initiative aims to develop a smart-building system that can detect and respond to airborne contaminants, with the goal of reducing respiratory illnesses in indoor environments.
The project, named Bioaerosol Risk Assessment interVention Engineering (BRAVE), seeks to create an automated system similar to fire suppression systems found in buildings. Instead of responding to fires, BRAVE would use biosensors to monitor indoor air for 25 different viruses, bacteria, allergens, and fungi—including SARS-CoV-2 and influenza—and trigger interventions such as increased ventilation or germicidal UV lights when risk levels are high.
Project lead Linsey Marr, University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, said: “The knowledge that comes out of this project will mean that when you go into a classroom, office, restaurant, or other building that has adopted the solutions from this research, the air is going to be cleaner and safer than it was before. That will mean that you have fewer days of illness, fewer missed workdays, and a better quality of life.”
Richard Corsi, dean of engineering at UC Davis and contributor to the project, stated: “This project will lead to significant public health and economic benefits. I am thrilled that researchers in the UC Davis College of Engineering will play a key role in this novel and important effort.”
Initial testing for BRAVE will take place in daycare centers due to their high potential for disease transmission. The technology is designed so its findings could be applicable across various communal settings such as classrooms and hospitals.
Chris Cappa, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis and lead on implementation for the project at UC Davis said: “The ability to monitor pathogens and allergens in the air in real time will allow us to transform the way our buildings operate to make them actively work to keep us healthy. This has the potential to be one of the biggest advances in how we think about the air inside buildings since the advent of air conditioning.”
UC Davis is responsible for integrating new biosensors with building systems during implementation and assessing how these measures reduce exposure risks.
The interdisciplinary team includes subproject leads from Washington University in St. Louis; University of Virginia; University of Michigan; Yale University; Pennsylvania State University; Emory University; Johnson Controls; Signature Science LLC; and Varro Life Sciences Inc., as well as additional researchers from UC Davis’s Western Cooling Efficiency Center.
Marr commented on collaboration within BRAVE: “We’ve brought together an incredibly strong team of world-class experts in lots of different topics to focus on this one problem because that’s what we need to make a big leap forward. There was a flurry of activity about indoor air inspired by the pandemic, and now we need to take the next step.”
ARPA-H funds this research through its Building Resilient Environments for Air and Total Health (BREATHE) program. The initial funding round totals $20 million with options for further investment over five years.
Following development, there are plans for commercializing BRAVE so it can be widely installed across public buildings.
