EVEN Professor Mark Hernandez has teamed up with local startup, Aerosol Devices Inc., to advance a new sampling technology for airborne bacterial cells and fungal spores that could pose a significant health risk in indoor environments.
Aerosol Devices Inc. was founded in Fort Collins by two professional women in aerosols with a goal to bring advanced aerosol collector technology to market. Aerosol Devices Inc. has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant for $225,000 to conduct research and development (R&D) work on new devices for the rapid and accurate characterization of airborne microbes.
Their research will provide an improved ability to characterize the microbiology of indoor aerosols which has many important engineering and public health benefits for urban society. The instruments they are developing will have an improved ability to monitor bioaerosols that could pose a health threat to water-damaged buildings; health care settings; transportation centers; and other public venues. These “next generation” 
instruments will provide an “innovative, unobtrusive and practical method for surveying the indoor air we breathe every day, in near real time,” according to a press release.