The recent COVID-19 world pandemic demonstrates most effectively the urgent need for near real-time detection of ambient airborne pathogens. It has been demonstrated that electrospray ionization, utilized in many mass spectrometers today, has the unique ability to capture bioaerosols non-destructively out of the air for subsequent interrogation. This proposal leverages on this electrospray capture technology to develop a suitable portable device that can yield qualitative information about specific target pathogens.
