Airborne bacteria

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, said a new device for trapping and deactivating airborne microbes can be employed in the war against terrorism because it can deactivate bioagents and bioweapons such as the smallpox virus, anthrax and ricin. The device combines an electrical field with soft X-rays and smart catalysts to capture and destroy bioagents.

"When the aerosol particles come into the device they are charged and trapped in an electrical field," explains Pratim Biswas, Ph.D.,Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Sciences and director of Environmental Engineering Sciences at Washington University.

Biswas and his collaborators have tested the device using non-potent polio virus and have achieved 99.9999 percent efficiency. He currently is collaborating with the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (MRCE) and his Washington University colleague, Lars Angenent, to identify the mechanistic pathways of biomolecular degradation

•	Device traps airborne bacteria The Washington Times, Thursday, March 11, 2004

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