Professor Qiang He and Assistant Professor Shuai Li have received one of the new One UT Collaboration and Innovation Grants for their proposal entitled “Pathogen Transmission Pathway Identification by Fomite and Behavior Monitoring.”
The objective of this research is to create and test new sensing, computational, and mechanistic tools to characterize the complex interrelationships between human behaviors and fomites, which are inanimate objects that become colonized with microbes.
Fomites serve as important intermediaries for transmission of pathogens to/from humans, so for settings such as schools, daycare centers, and long-term care facilities, understanding fomite transmission could play a crucial role in slowing infectious pathogens and helping to prevent economic calamity.
Read more at tce.utk.edu.