Winners of the Inventor of the Year Award 2022 : Michael Caffrey and Igor Popratny
The Inventor of the Year Award honors an outstanding inventor or an outstanding team of inventors at University of Illinois at Chicago who have contributed to the development of intellectual property that significantly impacts their field and society. The award is given based on the criteria of creativity, novelty, and the benefit to society.
2022 Winners:
Dr. Michael Caffrey & Dr. Igor Paprotny
Drs. Caffrey and Paprotny have been collaborating on the development of sensors for airborne viruses since 2018. With the emergence of COVID-19, there was no better timing for the teamwork between an engineer and a biochemist to tackle and solve the problem on how to detect an airborne virus. Dr. Caffrey and Dr. Paprotny developed an automated air quality monitoring sensor (for virus and other small sized particles) to tackle a lack of quality control methods used in monitoring systems. This technology allows for the detection of small sized particles from the air.
Dr. Caffrey is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at UIC. He is a structural biologist has been instrumental in defining the structures of several viral proteins and leveraged these insights to understand how viruses enter cells. Dr. Caffrey has applied his research on the entry of viruses into cells to a wide range of infectious diseases, including Ebola, HIV, influenza, and SARS-CoV. He has contributed to the scientific community with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. His expertise in the structure of viral proteins has enabled him to contribute to the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for viral diseases.
Dr. Paprotny is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and is the consortium lead of the Air-Microfluidics Group (AMFG). Dr. Paprotny has published five book chapters and more than 50 journal and conference publications. He is a co-inventor on five patents. His expertise is in the design, modeling, and fabrication of mechatronic and air-microfluidic devices based on nano- and microfabrication technologies. In one notable example of his innovative accomplishments, he successfully developed a wearable MEMS sensing technology called PM Badge with an Industrial collaborator, who is now independently continuing the commercialization effort.
Dr. Caffrey and Dr. Paprotny had to manually test the air quality monitoring sensor system in order to ensure that the high standards of the manufactured product were met, which required lots of time and manpower. Due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, the timing of all this hard work paid off through the demand of the emergent industry seeking to identify solutions and implementation of air quality monitoring systems to ensure the safety of public spaces. Poppy, one of emerging players in air quality detection technologies, showed early interest in this project and provided financial investments. Dr. Caffrey and Dr. Paprotny have advanced this technology forward, while addressing a significant societal need. Their invention can be readily adapted for any airborne diseases and has tremendous potential for detecting and containing the spread of current as well as any emergent future contagious airborne diseases. They therefore strongly deserve the distinction of Inventor(s) of the Year Award.