Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 45

SPINOFF
T
racking the spread of COVID-19
through communities provided essential
data for public-health officials
and individuals to make informed decisions
during the pandemic. One method
that proved useful was collecting, concentrating,
and testing municipal wastewater
for the presence of the virus that
caused the illness. As this testing ramped
up, a technology developed for NASA to
identify pathogens inside spacecraft
saved time and produced dependable
results on Earth.
Several Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) contracts awarded a few
years earlier helped InnovaPrep LLC of
Drexel, MO, improve its existing bioconcentration
process and apply it to automated
testing for viruses, bacteria, and
other pathogens in the air and water and
on surfaces in the International Space
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring
successfully commercialized NASA technology. This
commercialization has contributed to the development
of products and services in the fields of health and
medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety,
computer technology, and environmental resources.
Space Station Germ Testing Improves Wastewater Monitoring
A technology developed for NASA to identify pathogens inside spacecraft turned out to be
beneficial for wastewater surveillance on Earth.
Station. In addition to using a new filter
material, improving the
process, and
modifying it for space, the company developed
new fabrication steps to semi-automate
production processes. Prior to the
SBIR work, the company hand-built the
disposable filter, called a pipette, producing
about 200 a week. Now the output is
12,000 per week with a system that can
easily scale up to meet increased demand.
The improved production came just
in time. InnovaPrep could easily fill the
orders from public-health departments,
commercial laboratories, and researchers
as COVID-19 monitoring efforts were
put in place. Andy Page, CTO at InnovaPrep,
credits NASA with the company's
ability to advance its AirPrep and FluidPrep
product lines.
" We had a lot of good interaction with
NASA scientists who provided a lot of
good insight. That collaboration is super-valuable, "
he said. " The SBIR program
allows you to discover things that
you're not going to be able to easily discover
without that funding. "
After the cloths used to wipe down the space
station arrived on Earth, they were rinsed in the
water jar seen here with an orange lid to remove
microbes. That liquid was then concentrated
into this vial (inset) for testing by InnovaPrep's
CP Select system. (Image: NASA)
Pathogens, including some bacteria
and viruses, can become more harmful in
zero gravity, so keeping a spacecraft safe
for astronauts requires vigilance. But sample
collection and testing are time-consuming
tasks. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Southern California led the
effort to make it more efficient using automation,
with Kasthuri " Venkat " Venkateswaran,
Senior Research Scientist at
JPL, working with InnovaPrep to modify
its sample-concentration technology for
space.
One option to enable faster results is a
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
PCR rapidly amplifies small segments of
genetic material - DNA or RNA - by
making many copies. This creates a larger
sample for genetic testing, making it
easier to identify the type of bacteria or
virus present. Targeting specific molecular
fragments of viruses or bacteria is
preferable in space instead of growing a
live culture, a process frequently used on
Earth.
" If you are growing microbes in space,
that means even one cell will become bilNASA
astronaut Megan McArthur collects microbial
samples from surfaces inside the space
station to study the microbes associated with
closed habitation and predict those that may
pose a threat to crew health. (Image: NASA)
Tech Briefs, September 2024
Concentrating the microbes in gallons of water
down to a few ounces for testing could be a
time-consuming task. But the specialized InnovaPrep
filtration system called CP Select, which
benefited from NASA expertise, can quickly do
just that on Earth. (Image: InnovaPrep LLC)
www.techbriefs.com
lions of cells. One cell will not do any
harm to human health, but growing that
one cell in a closed system is dangerous, "
said Venkateswaran. Tiny microbes are
difficult to find, so NASA did some
45
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Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024

Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - Intro
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - Sponsor
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - Cov1
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - Cov2
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 1
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 2
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 3
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 4
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 5
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 6
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 7
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 8
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 9
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 10
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 11
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 12
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 13
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 14
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 15
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 16
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 16A
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 16B
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 16C
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 16D
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 17
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 18
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 19
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 20
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 21
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 22
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 23
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 24
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 25
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 26
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 27
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 28
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 29
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 30
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 31
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 32
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 33
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 34
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 35
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 36
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 37
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 38
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 39
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 40
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 41
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 42
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 43
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 44
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 45
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 46
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 47
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - 48
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - Cov3
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - Cov4
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-Cov1
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-Cov2
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-1
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-2
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-3
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-4
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-5
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-6
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-7
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-8
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-9
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-10
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-11
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-12
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-13
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-14
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-15
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-16
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-17
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-18
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-19
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-20
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-21
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-22
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-23
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-24
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-25
Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2024 - PIT-Cov4
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