OUR STORY
Pioneering a New Era in Public Health Surveillance
BioAerium was founded to develop innovative products for the protection of human and animal health from infectious airborne pathogens, through early-warning. Co-founded at the University of Illinois at Chicago by Dr. Michael Caffrey, Dr. Igor Paprotny and Dr. Nitin Jayakumar, the teams scientific expertise combines biochemistry, virology, air-microfluidic engineering and electronics towards the development of novel autonomous sensor networks - for the remote tracking of airborne viruses. BioAerium’s mission is to develop and commercialize technology that prevents the future occurrence of large scale pandemic like events.
THE TEAM
Michael Caffrey, Ph.D.
CO-FOUNDER
BIOMOLECULAR LEAD
Igor Paprotny, Ph.
CO-FOUNDER
ENGINEERING LEAD
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Innovative Technology
At bioAerium, we provide comprehensive technological solutions for the detection of airborne viruses and the adaption of assays to industrial and consumer applications. Our platform has a wide range of features that were created with an aim to help you live differently. In order to empower our users to do better, bioAerium is continually building upon its technology, so stay in touch to learn about upgrades and other changes.
For the detection of airborne viruses, optimal sensitivity is required. In the latest version of bioAerium we use a LAMP-based approach that enables detection of less than 10 copies of virus. A comparison of the competing technologies is given to the right.
Rapid Response to Emerging Pathogens
Importantly, the use of LAMP as opposed to high affinity binding techniques (ELISA or SPR using antibodies or engineered antibodies or nanobodies) enables a rapid response to emerging pathogens. To the left we present a comparison of the relative response times from discovery to incorporation in a detector.
IN THE NEWS
UIC Today
Translational Science Q&A: COVID-19 Rapid Response pilot awardees launch startup, receive UIC Inventor of the Year Award
Lauren Rieger | Posted on May 15, 2023
UIC Today
Airborne Virus Detection: BioAerium's Revolutionary Approach
Robin Mitchell | Posted on May 16, 2023
SWINE HOUSE INFORMATION CENTER
bioAerium researchers awarded grant to develop "viral smoke detector" for farm biosecurity
Posted January 2, 2025
WHAT IF RUNNER-UP AWARD
bioAerium researchers receive funding to develop pathogen-agnostic fingerprinting of emerging airborne viruses
Posted August 15, 2026
Patent pending
PORK BUSINESS
Researchers Develop Smoke Detector-Like Technology for Virus Monitoring
Jennifer Shike | Posted October 8, 2026
PUBLICATIONS
Jayakumar, N., Veronique Caffrey, Michael Caffrey, and Igor Paprotny. Towards Real-Time Airborne Pathogen Sensing: Electrostatic Capture and On-Chip LAMP Based Detection of Airborne Viral Pathogens, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 412, 2024, 135767, ISSN 0925-4005, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2024.135767
Caffrey, M., N. Jayakumar, V. Caffrey, V. Anirudan, L. Rong, and I. Paprotny. VLP-Based Model for Study of Airborne Viral Pathogens, Microbiology Spectrum, https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00013-24
J. Albaghdadi, A. Ghiacy, J. Sabino, M. Caffrey and I. Paprotny, CLAW: Hybrid Microfluidic- Mechatronic Precipitator for LAMP-Based Airborne Pathogen Sensors, 2025 IEEE SENSORS, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2025, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/SENSORS59705.2025.11330945
Caffrey, M., Paprotny, I., & Smith, R. (2026). Challenges and progress toward real-time detection of airborne viral pathogens. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/07388551.2026.2628597
Albaghdadi, J., Ghaicy, A., Y. Asuru, V. Mareddy, M. Caffrey, V. Caffrey, Y. Fang, and I. Paprotny. Hybrid Microfluidic RT-LAMP based Sensor for Detecting Pathogenic Viral Aerosols Directly from Air, in the proceedings of the Hilton Head 2026: A Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop, May 30 – June 4, 2026, Hilton Head Island, SC
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