Bug Zapper Kills COVID-19 Virus

St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to intelligent, Zap Zone Defender System life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally given rise to an unbelievable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and other entrance-line organizations jumped to secure giant quantities of life-saving supplies and private protective equipment (PPE), there has also been the necessity to establish quicker, more environment friendly methods to wash and sterilize those objects, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the necessity and an idea started to kind. "It turned clear that PPE provides would grow to be 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 despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that's a vital a part of the well being care Zap Zone Defender System. "On any given day, we are processing many, many items here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.

"But with the present scenario, there may be an overwhelming must process our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a gentle went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing non-public analysis about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature suggested that, in a pandemic, UV-C gentle could be an appropriate strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a selected vary of UV, or extremely-violet, gentle and has been shown to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by causing adjustments of their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher received in touch with Nelson Tansu, PhD, Lehigh University’s Director and Endowed Chair of its Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN). "What St. Luke’s was searching for was a high-throughput sterilization system," stated Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces by way of a collection of Zoom conferences and a whole bunch of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and take a look at the machine - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.

The end outcome: a solution to effectively and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every eight minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in action. "Our current models weren't designed for giant-scale use. They might only sterilize about 30 masks at a time," acknowledged Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the venture. The unit, engineered by Lehigh students and employees and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely on account of its appearance, but on account of its COVID-killing properties. "It is unbelievable that this challenge moved at such a rapid pace," remarks Dr. Tansu. The crew 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 price. "Our original design was cylindrical in form, to make sure even exposure of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.

"Axel got here to me and stated, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And certain enough, he was proper. A patent to protect the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to fulfill, in-individual, shall be deliberate as soon as it's secure to do so. Until then, the Bug Zapper might be hard at work, serving to to guard the frontline employees at St. Luke’s and Zap Zone Defender past. This, like so many other stories, presents a ray of hope through the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working collectively for an incredible trigger. Afterall, as the famous philosopher Plato understood thousands of years in the past, necessity is the mother of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully built-in, regional, non-profit community of more than 15,000 employees providing companies at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual internet income higher than $2 billion, the Network’s service space includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.