CECAM - Chamber for Environmental Control of Airborne Microorganisms

CECAM - 空气微生物环境控制室

• 批准号: EP/W006375/1
• 负责人: Catherine Noakes
• 金额: $ 105.36万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW006375%2F1
• 关键词: CECAM; Chamber; Environmental; Control; Airborne

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how significant a role the indoor environment plays in the transmission of infection. The virus has highlighted how there are substantial gaps in knowledge relating to how microorganisms in aerosols and droplets are generated and dispersed in our buildings, how effectively we can measure and monitor risks in indoor environments, and how the design of the environment and the technologies within it can be used to control exposure to pathogens. While there is an immediate focus on respiratory infections, this challenge applies to a very wide range of microorganisms including gastroenteric pathogens and environmental microorganisms where exposure risks are driven by human interactions with the building layout, ventilation, heating and water systems. Understanding and tackling these challengers requires new knowledge about the interactions between microorganisms and the physical environment. Microbial aerosols in buildings are known to be released from human sources (respiratory aerosols, skin squame), building systems (aerosols from water, drainage and ventilation systems), industry processes (waste and waste water treatment, agricultural activities), the natural environment (sea, animals, plant pathogens) and medical procedures (dentistry, intubation). However we know very little about how the engineering design of the environment determines the generation, transport, deposition and control of microorganisms. Beyond microorganisms, there is growing awareness that human health is significantly affected by exposure to pollutants in indoor spaces and that many buildings are inadequately ventilated to provide healthy conditions for occupants. The CECAM (Chamber for Environmental Control of Airborne Microorganisms) facility will provide a new, multi-user research environment that can enable controlled experiments with aerosolised microorganisms under different indoor environmental conditions. The facility will enable key research questions to be addressed relating to sources and survival of microbial aerosols, methods for measuring and monitoring microbial aerosols and pollutants, the role of ventilation and room layouts on the dispersion and deposition of microbial aerosols and other pollutants, the development of effective engineering solutions including personal protective equipment, air cleaning and disinfection devices, and better designs of key components such as showers, hot air dryers, air conditioning units and drainage systems. The facility will enable research at the interfaces of fluid dynamics and aerosol sciences with microbiology and indoor air chemistry that is driven by clinical challenges and the need for improved indoor environmental quality in buildings across just about every sector of society. The CECAM facility will provide an integrated user environment that combines a controlled biocontainment chamber with dedicated air handling systems with a suite of environmental sensors and bioaerosol samplers including real-time bioaerosol sampling. Through location within a well-equipped microbiology laboratory and managed by a dedicated experimental officer, the CECAM facility will enable robust and safe experiments to be carried out by academic users, research organisations, NHS users and industry. This will include the ability for experiments to be carried out using human participants.

COVID-19大流行揭示了室内环境在感染传播中的重要作用。该病毒强调了如何在我们的建筑物中生成和分散的气溶胶和液滴中的微生物，我们如何有效地衡量和监测室内环境中的风险以及如何有效地测量和监测环境设计和内部技术的风险它可用于控制暴露于病原体。虽然直接关注呼吸道感染，但该挑战适用于非常广泛的微生物，包括胃肠道病原体和环境微生物，在这些微生物中，由于人类与建筑物布局，通风，供暖和水系统的相互作用，暴露风险是暴露风险的。了解和应对这些挑战者需要有关微生物与物理环境之间相互作用的新知识。已知建筑物中的微生物气溶胶已从人类来源（呼吸道气溶胶，皮肤蹲下），建筑系统（来自水，排水和通风系统的气溶胶），行业过程（废物和废水处理，农业活动），自然环境（自然环境）释放。海洋，动物，植物病原体）和医疗程序（牙科​​，插管）。但是，我们对环境的工程设计如何决定微生物的产生，运输，沉积和控制。除了微生物外，人们越来越意识到，人类健康受到室内空间中污染物的影响很大，并且许多建筑物的通风不足以为居住者提供健康状况。 CECAM（机载微生物的环境控制室）设施将提供一个新的多用户研究环境，可以在不同的室内环境条件下使用雾化的微生物进行控制的实验。该设施将使关键的研究问题与微生物气溶胶的来源和存活有关，测量和监测微生物气溶胶和污染物的方法，通风和房间布局在微生物气溶胶的分散和沉积中的作用以及其他污染物的发育，有效的工程解决方案，包括个人防护设备，空气清洁和消毒设备，以及更好的关键组件设计，例如淋浴，热空气烘干机，空调单元和排水系统。该设施将在流体动力学和与微生物学和室内空气化学的界面进行研究，这是由临床挑战所驱动的，并且需要改善社会各个部门的建筑物的室内环境质量。 CECAM设施将提供一个集成的用户环境，该环境将受控的生物培养室与专用的空气处理系统以及一套环境传感器和包括实时生物Aerosol采样（包括实时的生物Aerosol采样）的专用空气处理系统相结合。通过设备齐全的微生物实验室内的位置，并由专门的实验官员管理，CECAM设施将使学术用户，研究组织，NHS用户和行业能够进行健壮且安全的实验。这将包括使用人参与者进行实验的能力。