Bug Zapper Kills COVID-19 Virus

St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an unimaginable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Zappify Bug Zapper Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and other entrance-line organizations jumped to safe large quantities of life-saving supplies and private protective equipment (PPE), there has also been the need to determine quicker, extra efficient ways to scrub and sterilize those items, notably the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an thought started to form. "It became clear that PPE provides would turn into limited because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical instruments are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that is a necessary a part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many gadgets here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the present situation, there may be an overwhelming must process our employees’ PPE on a daily basis. For Dr. Roscher, a gentle went on - literally and figuratively. "I had been doing personal analysis about finding methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature urged that, in a pandemic, UV-C mild might be an appropriate strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a specific vary of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been proven to deactivate viruses and other pathogens by causing modifications in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher bought in contact with Nelson Tansu, PhD, Lehigh University’s Director and Endowed Chair of its Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN). "What St. Luke’s was on the lookout for was a excessive-throughput sterilization system," stated Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces by way of a sequence of Zoom conferences and tons of of emails, to design, fabricate, install and test the device - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all while maintaining social distancing protocols.

The top consequence: a strategy to effectively and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our current models were not designed for large-scale use. They could solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time," acknowledged Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the challenge. The unit, engineered by Lehigh college students and employees and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not only as a consequence of its look, however because of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unbelievable that this undertaking moved at such a speedy velocity," remarks Dr. Tansu. The workforce ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. Actually, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a excessive-throughput fee. "Our original design was cylindrical in shape, to ensure even exposure of the light on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel came to me and stated, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And positive enough, he was proper. A patent to protect the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to fulfill, in-individual, will likely be deliberate once it is secure to do so. Until then, the Bug Zapper will be laborious at work, helping to protect the frontline workers at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many different stories, offers a ray of hope throughout the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome something - particularly when working together for a great cause. Afterall, because the well-known philosopher Plato understood hundreds of years ago, necessity is the mother of invention. Founded in 1872, Zappify Bug Zapper St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a completely built-in, regional, non-profit community of more than 15,000 employees offering companies at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue better than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.