SBIR-STTR Award

Science-based strategies for quantifying and mitigating the impact of anthropogenic emissions on public health are essential for the sustainability of cities. Similar strategies can also be used to develop and assess the effectiveness of a national defense system against terrorist attacks with airborne biological agents and protect against the spread of airborne diseases and other pathogens. Critical prerequisite for developing such strategies is being able to predict how particulates are transported in real-life urban indoor and outdoor environments. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models that can simulate turbulent flow and transport phenomena in urban environments can be used to develop such predictive understanding. However, for CFD models to play a role in predicting the fate and transport of contaminants and pathogens in urban environments it is important to demonstrate their predictive ability through systematic validation studies. Such studies require collecting high-resolution experimental data, both in laboratory settings and the field, which can then be used to ground truth the CFD predictions. Validating the ability of CFD models to predict transport of scalars in complex turbulent flows at field scale is a very challenging undertaking. This is because particulate transport is an inherently lagrangian process, which requires knowledge of fluid trajectories or particle paths rather than measurements of velocity at set points in the flow. Moreover, in turbulent flows the fate of a transported scalar depends sensitively on its initial release location. The purpose of the proposed research is the development of a modeling product capable of: predicting fate and transport of contaminants, identifying contamination sources, and determining rates of remediation. The accuracy and efficiency of this product will stem from the combination of advanced CFD methods and a breakthrough validation process. We propose to employ DNATrax, a revolutionary new technology that is able to produce essentially an infinite number of genetically distinct and environmentally safe micro-particles that can be used as particulate simulants to collect transport data in both indoor and outdoor urban environments. Therefore, the research proposed herein is significant because Integrating DNATrax with advanced, high-fidelity computational models will enable this technology to impact a broad range of problems of major societal significance. Examples of commercial uses for DNATrax include, among others: (1) Part of a comprehensive commercial modeling product to calculate the contribution of each of multiple sources to ambient particulate pollution and enable the implementation of targeted corrective measures; and to predict the fate and transport of particulates in urban environment. (2) In healthcare environments as an air quality monitoring system to prevent dispersion of biological contaminants and reduce airbone related healthcare acquired infections; (3) Military installations and vessels as a challenge agent for biodefense networks; and (4) other hazardous work environments as a quantitative fit test for respirators and integration and interoperability o Personal Protection Equipment.

Public Health Relevance Statement:


Public Health Relevance:
Science-based strategies for quantifying and mitigating the impact of anthropogenic emissions and other releases of biological agents on public health are essential for the sustainability of cities. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models can be used to predict the fate and transport of pollutants but their experimental validation is presently extremely challenging. In this work we propose the use of DNATrax, a revolutionary new technology, to develop a simple method for validation of computational models.

Project Terms:
Address; Agriculture; Air; anthropogenesis; Area; Award; Bar Codes; base; biodefense; Biological; Biological Products; Biota; Biotechnology; Breathing; Cities; Complex; Computer Simulation; contaminant transport; Data; Deposition; design; Detection; Development; Disease; DNA; Effectiveness; Environment; Environmental Wind; Equipment; expectation; Exposure to; falls; Food; Geometry; Healthcare; Human; improved; Indoor environment; Infection; interest; interoperability; Knowledge; Laboratories; Licensing; Life; Liquid substance; Location; Marketing; Measurement; Measures; Mechanical Ventilators; Methods; microorganism; Military Personnel; Minnesota; Modeling; Monitor; new technology; operation; particle; Particulate; Particulate Matter; pathogen; Phase; physical model; Play; pollutant transport; Pollution; pressure; prevent; Process; public health medicine (field); public health relevance; Reading; Relative (related person); remediation; Research; research and development; research study; Resolution; Resources; Respiratory System; Role; sample collection; Sampling; Science; Seeds; Series; Soil; Source; stem; System; Technology; Testing; Tracer; Transport Process; Transportation; Universities; uptake; Validation; validation studies; Water; Work; Workplace

The abundance of airborne micron-sized pollutant correlates with the prevalence and severity of respiratory diseases, which represents the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States and have an economical cost of tens of billions of dollars per year. Growing concerns on the possibility of terrorist attacks have motivated efforts in preparing for and responding to airborne releases of chemical, biological or nuclear materials in highly populated regions. Experimental and computational techniques that can precisely correlate the fate of a contaminant with its initial release location are sorely needed to inform and validate the next generation of predictive tools in the area of contaminant dispersion. In Phase I of this project we demonstrated the potential of DNATrax (DNA Tagged Reagents for Aerosol eXperiments), a 2013 R&D 100 Award winning and FDA recognized technology, able to produce a virtually infinite number of distinct, DNA-labeled and environmentally safe micro-particles that can be used as contaminant simulants both indoors and outdoors. This paved the way towards a novel framework to inform, advance and validate numerical simulations of contaminant transport in both indoor and outdoor settings. To this end, in Phase II, we will significantly improve the accuracy of our methodology, expand the considered range of aerosol sizes, and demonstrate capabilities of tackling outdoor contaminant transport. Consequently, our specific aims are as follows: Aim 1: Enhance accuracy, repeatability, and flexibility of the experimental method. We will improve several crucial aspects of our methodology for predicting contaminant transport, including particle release, sampling, and analysis, as well as flow characterization using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and aerosol transport modeling using LES. In particular, we will accurately measure the amount of deposited DNA copies after each release experiment, and we will compare with time-resolved simulations in which millions of Lagrangian particles are individually tracked using highly efficient parallel super-computing. Aim 2: Demonstrate the capabilities of DNATrax as contaminant simulant in outdoor releases. We will leverage the unique facilities and expertise at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center to perform open air releases in a 400-acre plot of land monitored by meteorological stations, as well as releases in a 200 ft long breeze tunnel. In these large scale deployment of DNATrax we will employ the same experimental methodology which we will have refined in Aim 1 through small-scale wind tunnel measurements. Using our team's top-notch computational capabilities, we will perform highly resolved LES simulations of these large-scale release cases, including the complexities of the filed site terrain.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
PROJECT NARRATIVE The abundance of airborne micron-sized pollutants correlates with the prevalence and severity of respiratory diseases. In addition, growing concerns on the possibility of terrorist attacks have motivated efforts in preparing for and responding to airborne releases of chemical, biological or nuclear materials in highly populated regions. In this work we propose the use of DNATrax, a revolutionary new technology, combined with advanced computational fluid dynamics models to precisely correlate the fate of a contaminant with its initial release location, a capability sorely needed to inform and validate the next generation of predictive tools in the area of contaminant dispersion.

Project Terms:
Aerosols; Air; anthropogenesis; Area; Avian Influenza; Award; base; Biological; built environment; Cause of Death; chemical release; Chemicals; Communicable Diseases; Complex; Computational Technique; Computers; Computing Methodologies; contaminant transport; cost; Data; Decision Making; Deposition; Detection; Disease Outbreaks; DNA; Ebola virus; Environment; Environmental Wind; experimental study; flexibility; health assessment; Image; improved; Individual; Label; large scale simulation; Lead; Life; Liquid substance; Location; Lung diseases; Measurement; Measures; Meteorology; Methodology; Methods; Modeling; Monitor; Morphology; new technology; next generation; notch protein; novel; Nuclear; particle; Phase; Police; pollutant; Population; Population Density; predictive tools; Prevalence; Prevention; Reagent; research and development; response; Sampling; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; Severities; simulation; Site; Source; Supercomputing; System; Techniques; Technology; Time; tool; United States; urban area; Validation; Velocimetries; virtual; Work