$1.8 Million funded by CDC in partnership with UC Davis and the University of Cincinnati
NexGenPPE's Dr. Guowen Song is a part of a team at Iowa State that has teamed up with UC Davis and the University of Cincinnati to develop personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. The project has been awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has a budget of $1.8 million. The overall purpose of the grant is to improve PPE used in healthcare settings for infection control by incorporating functional textile materials and a new design for both gowns and respirators. Over the next several years, Dr. Song and his team are sure to make a difference in the world's PPE strategies.
The objectives are:
- Design and develop an innovative textile material and isolation gowns,
- Design and develop an innovative textile filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) with significantly improved performance against infectious aerosols
- Develop the capability to produce these two products within the US textile industry
The overall PPE performance design will be evaluated using instrumented manikins, specifically designed human trials, and field use and performance testing. The data from these various evaluations will be applied to further improve the newly developed PPE components, making an impact in how healthcare workers are protected both domestically and abroad.
Combating Firefighter Contamination
One of the most dangerous hazards facing firefighters today is the risk of PPE contaminated with carcinogens found at fire scenes. Due to a lack of cleaning practices that thoroughly remove such carcinogens from the PPE system, the long term exposure to these hazardous particulates results in much higher cancer rates among firefighters compared to other professions. The work of NexGenPPE seeks to find better ways to efficiently clean these contaminated PPE systems, as well as develop methods to better quantify different levels of protection to keep firefighters better informed about their protective gear.