Professor of Forest Biomaterials Dimitris Argyropoulos is an expert in synthetic polymer and biopolymer chemistry, in particular cellulose-derived materials spanning nanocrystals, fibers, and nanofibrillated fibers (NFC).
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Frank Scholle has been developing the NFC-PS anti-infective technology for the past 7 years, and is a virologist with an emphasis on flaviviruses and West Nile virus.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Reza Ghiladi has been working on the technology behind anti-infective materials for the past 10 years, and has an established program with expertise in antibacterial photodynamic inactivation.
Founded in 2018, PhotoCide Protection develops self-disinfecting materials such fabrics, plastics, and coatings based on a disruptive technology that combines engineered cellulose (NFC) with photosensitizers (PS, compounds that react with room light and oxygen from air) to emit an environmentally-friendly biocidal agent called ‘singlet’ oxygen that simultaneously destroys a wide range of harmful pathogens on surfaces.
A recent study with one NFC-PS formulation showed that it was capable of killing 99.999+% of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, vesicular stomatitis virus and dengue-1 virus.
Antimicrobials based on biocidal singlet oxygen have advantages of
