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Concentrating Viable Airborne Pathogens Using a Virtual Impactor

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed by the presenters are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of West Point, the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or U.S. Government. Title: Concentrating viable airborne pathogens using a virtual impactor with a compact water-based condensation air sampler Abstract: Understanding the health risks posed by airborne pathogens requires more than just detecting their presence—it demands assessing whether those pathogens remain infectious after collection. In this talk, we present recent advancements in integrating an upstream virtual impactor (VI) to concentrate bioaerosol particles prior to collection at the portable BioSpot-GEM™ sampler, which gently grows airborne particles through water vapor condensation before collecting them into a liquid medium—an approach known to conserve microbial viability. Our results show that this integrated system significantly improves the recovery of viable microorganisms. For example, the addition of the VI increased the median collection efficiency of live human coronavirus OC43 by a factor of 12.7, without compromising viral infectivity. We also compare the performance of the compact BioSpot-GEM™ with the larger BioSpot-VIVAS™ sampler, demonstrating comparable efficiency in collecting viable E. coli. At the end of the talk, we will also discuss the practical challenges of using virtual impactors with biological particles and outline future directions for optimizing pathogen sampling in real-world environments. Speaker 1 Information: Dr. Chang-Yu Wu is Professor and Chair in the Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering at the University of Miami. His main teaching and research interests are in air pollution control and aerosol science. He has published 190+ refereed journal articles with an H-index of 56 and 12000+ citations. His research has resulted in 13 US patents and 2 pending applications. He has received several awards recognizing his accomplishments in education, research and service, including Fellow of American Association for Aerosol Research. Speaker 2 Information: Dr. William "Brad" Vass is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the United States Military Academy. He is an officer in the U.S. Army, serving as an Environmental Science and Engineering Officer in the Medical Service Corps. Dr. Vass completed his PhD program at the University of Florida in 2024, where his research included virus aerosolization and collection, with a focus on the enrichment of viruses in samples while conserving their viability. He also conducted air sampling to quantify virus presence in occupational and residential settings and thereby better understand potential human health risks.