Bengaluru-based start-up develops tech to eliminate airborne COVID-19

Bengaluru-based start-up Biomoneta has developed an air decontamination technology which promised to eliminate airborne COVID-19 with 99.99 percent efficiency in any closed setting.

The company, which is funded by the Centre and the Karnataka Government, has conducted validation studies at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, with support from The Department of Biotechnology’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (DBT-BIRAC).

The technology, developed under the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP)’s COVID-19 Innovations Deployment Accelerator programme (C-CIDA), is pathogen agnostic. In previous studies conducted by ICMR and NABL-accredited labs, it had destroyed other airborne microbes with 99.99 percent efficiency as well.

Among other things, it has proven to be effective against pathogens notorious for causing secondary infections in hospitals, including bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, fungi such as Candida, and viruses such as H1N1, which cause influenza.

Its activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen causing TB, is particularly important as TB remains a neglected disease with no preventive vaccine. The causative pathogen is airborne, highly transmissible, and can spread through variants that cannot be treated easily with currently available antibiotics.

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Co-founder and CEO of Biomoneta Janani Venkatraman noted that post-COVID-19, there is a realization that the air treatment needs microbe-specific standards.

“The methods used to disinfect air even in state-of-the-art medical environments focus on particulate matter removal as a surrogate for microbial decontamination. Our medical and surgical procedures have evolved significantly. We aspire to bring air sterilization to the same level,” Venkatraman said.

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Arindam Ghatak said, “Lab data is important but real impact is measured by how the technology translates for the end user. We have worked with hospitals, clinics, IVF labs, offices and cafeterias to demonstrate this.”

Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO & Director of C-CAMP, said that Biomoneta, as a C-CAMP incubated start-up, is testimony to what deep-science led innovations can do to solve a crucial problem for COVID-19 and looking beyond, for non-COVID-19 airborne infections.