Publications by authors named "Vishhvaan Gopalakrishnan"
A morbidostat is a bioreactor that uses antibiotics to control the growth of bacteria, making it well-suited for studying the evolution of antibiotic resistance. However, morbidostats are often too expensive to be used in educational settings. Here we present a low-cost morbidostat called the EVolutionary biorEactor (EVE) that can be built by students with minimal engineering and programming experience.
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- - Personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential for the safety of both medical staff and patients, especially during pandemics like COVID-19, leading to a significant demand-supply gap.
- - The study explores a method for decontaminating PPE, specifically N95 respirator masks, using ultraviolet (UV) radiation in biosafety cabinets, which are found in many healthcare settings.
- - Results indicate that effective decontamination requires UV-C exposure for a minimum of 15 minutes, successfully inactivating the human coronavirus NL63, thus supporting healthcare organizations in preserving PPE supplies.
Background: Filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) are critical for protecting essential personnel and limiting the spread of disease. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, FFR supplies are dwindling in many health systems, necessitating re-use of potentially contaminated FFR. Multiple decontamination solutions have been developed to meet this pressing need, including systems designed for bulk decontamination of FFR using vaporous hydrogen peroxide or ultraviolet-C (UV-C) radiation.
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