Innovation campaign for mask testing

Innovation for safety

Time to find out what protects – support our research project

Important for all of us, but especially for safety at work: anyone who is confronted with infected people often and for long periods of time needs to know whether the mask in use provides protection. Perhaps less is more? Can we identify solutions that protect really well but make it easier to breathe? For us, correct testing means using active and human viruses. We are using an innovative virus spray assay to compare different masks and also include the fit on the face in the test.

To achieve this, we need your support through a donation. Any amount helps. In the planning section, we describe in detail what the money will be used for.

Safety at work – where staying away is not an option

Masks for virus protection may be superfluous for some and only a brief annoyance for others – but they are unavoidable for people in professional contact with sick people. But how do those who are supposed to protect protect themselves? This project aims to make not only the private sphere safer, but also occupational safety, with a mask test that reliably tests whether and for how long viruses are kept out by which type of mask – and on different faces. For all those who are exposed. For anyone who has to wear a mask often and for a long time. For people who are indispensable to society.

  • Eine Mitarbeiterin am Empfang trägt eine Maske zum Schutz gegen Coronaviren.
    Wer öffentlich mit potentiellen Infizierten arbeitet…
  • Rettungssanitäter im Einsatz müssen sich auf die Wirksamkeit ihrer Masken verlassen können.
    …ist auf die Wirkung seiner Maske angewiesen.
  • Eine Rettungssanitäterin hat sich auf der Arbeit mit Corona infiziert und liegt auf der Intensivstation.
    Sonst enden die Helfer selber als Patienten.

With the winter, viruses are back, some people are wearing masks again, sometimes they are mandatory, and those who are exposed professionally are even dependent on them. And we all ask ourselves: does this really protect us? Many have been infected despite wearing a mask, especially in hospitals and care settings. But also: couldn’t it be a little more comfortable so that you can breathe more easily?

The world is networked and active. We want to keep it that way.

These questions have not been conclusively answered with the test methods used to date (see section “State of research”).

In our S2 laboratory, we at the BioMed Center conduct research into viruses, bacteria and fungi and methods and materials for rendering them harmless to humans. Numerous innovative approaches and sustainable products have been successfully tested during the coronavirus pandemic.

Typical for BioMed Center Innovation, we have developed numerous new approaches, such as the investigation of protective gels with virus antibodies and the spray mist assay with real coronaviruses (but HCoV229E, a rather harmless species).

S2 laboratory for virus testing at the BioMed Center Innovation

Together with the company Tool Partner and the Institute of Materials and Processes at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, a method was developed to finally test the permeability of mask materials with real coronaviruses. This is unique worldwide: Until now, masks are tested with particles, droplets and in the best case with bacteriophages – we believe that this is not an adequate substitute for human pathogenic viruses.