LSU Louisiana Technology Transfer Office Client Earns Spot in NASA Competition for 3D-Printed Filtration Masks to Help Healthcare Workers, Astronauts
June 30, 2022
OrganicNANO, a biotech company from Ruston, Louisiana won NASA iTech’s “Ignite the Night” virtual pitch competition last month and is now a semifinalist among 25 companies nation-wide. Its nanotechnologies, which provide biomedical solutions on an atomic or molecular scale, could help protect healthcare workers fighting COVID-19 as well as astronauts during space explorations.
OrganicNANO, a small business from Ruston, Louisiana is developing a 3D-printed mask
with enhanced filtration capabilities that may improve personal protective equipment
(PPE) for healthcare professionals battling today’s pandemic as well as astronauts
on missions in outer space. Their patented filtration unit blocks pathogens larger
than 50 nanometers and utilizes metal ions and drugs to enhance its antiviral, antibacterial,
and antimicrobial properties. Following OrganicNANO’s win at NASA iTech’s “Ignite
the Night” virtual pitch event last month, their technology will now be evaluated
by NASA, and organicNANO has a chance to be selected as one of the top 10 finalists
who will be presenting at the NASA iTech Cycle II Forum in Tinton Falls, New Jersey
later this year.
NASA iTech program identifies cutting-edge technologies that solve problems here on
Earth but have the potential to also address some of the challenges posed by further
exploration of the Moon and Mars. Chris Miller, OrganicNANO director of research,
made the virtual pitch and is both humbled by the win and encouraged by the networking
and support the venture has received so far.
Dr. Ramona Pelletier Travis, NASA chief technologist at the John C. Stennis Space
Center (SSC), has been an integral part of the NASA iTech program since its inception
four years ago and remarked on the possible benefits and scope of organicNANO’s work.
“The organicNANO technology has potential for filtering air in our crewed spacecraft
and for use in airlock environments of future space habitats on the surface of the
Moon where we would want to limit the entrance of lunar dust into living portions
of the habitat,” she said.
With help from the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office (LTTO), organicNANO won a Department of Defense STTR Phase 1 award through the Air Force innovation AFWERX program last year to advance their work.
Miller and his colleague AJ McFarland are PhD candidates and researchers in Professor
David Mills’ BioMorph Lab at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, which has patented
the filtration technology. Mills is the owner of organicNANO, as well as a professor
of biological sciences at the Louisiana Tech University Center for Biomedical Engineering
and Rehabilitation Sciences. He’s elated by his company’s success in the ongoing NASA
competition.
“I’m excited by NASA’s interest in the technology for their space missions as well
as for the current COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
OrganicNANO has received support and small business training from the Louisiana Technology
Transfer Office (LTTO) with offices in the Louisiana Business & Technology Center
(LBTC), part of LSU Innovation Park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and at the NASA John
C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. With help from the LTTO, organicNANO won a
Department of Defense STTR Phase 1 award through the Air Force innovation AFWERX program
last year to advance their work.
“It’s the long-standing dedication by the LTTO to support the development and growth
of technology businesses across Louisiana that has established the foundation that
is now helping to launch these types of ventures and giving life to their ingenious
solutions,” said Kathy Wyatt, director of Enterprise Campus at Louisiana Tech University.
Vic Johnson, manager of the Louisiana Tech Transfer Office at Stennis, appreciates
working in close proximity to NASA.
“The LTTO has a long-standing working partnership with NASA at Stennis, officially
authorized by the state of Louisiana through the Governor’s office,” he said. “Through
our presence here, we are able to connect universities, small technology-oriented
companies, and entrepreneurs across Louisiana with NASA and other federal labs.”
The LTTO/LBTC are designated by the state and the U.S. Small Business Administration’s
Office of Innovation as the official support organizations for the Small Business
Innovation Program (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program in
Louisiana. This allows the LTTO to provide a wide variety of support for companies
like organicNANO in their efforts to pursue and win SBIR-STTR awards for new and innovative
technologies.