Author: nkamona

Destie Provenzano, a PhD candidate in our lab, and her husband, Dr. Yuan James Rao, MD (GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences) had to cancel their honeymoon in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so they determined to use the time instead to help health care workers. They are doing this by developing 3D-printed N95 respirators to supplement the rapidly depleting stocks of these and other PPE (personal protective equipment). This SMHS article tells the story of the work they are doing. They are also getting help with the project from Dr. Loew, BME graduate and doctoral students Konstantin Mitic and Sofian Obaid, Dominique Pierce (GW Library); James Huckenpahler (Corcoran School of the Arts and Design); Jeffrey Berger (Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine), and Sharad Goyal (Department of Radiology).

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic,  Dr. Murray Loew (BME) is working with BME grad students Sofian Obaid, Konstantin Mitic, and Destie Provenzano, and with Dr. James Rao (GW Radiation Oncology) to make N95-equivalent respirators using 3D printers. Destie and James have been developing the filter material (using furnace-filter fabric) and testing the designs at the hospital, and Sofian and Konstantin have been building the prototypes for testing. Dr. Loew has been helping with design specifications and sizing. Dr. Loew reports separately that a number of BME labs in the SEH have donated their limited supplies of masks and other personal protective equipment to the GW Hospital. Sofian collected and delivered them.

The manuscript for the design of the 3D printed N95 masks can be found at this website: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0444/v1.

Dr. Murray Loew participated in the panel discussion “Perfection: The Laurent Crystal Flute, 1807-1848” at the Library of Congress on February 15. The program also featured a concert that included performances on several of the nearly 200-year-old glass flutes. This was organized as part of the outreach efforts of the National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored grant “Glass at Risk,” which is investigating new methods for characterizing and measuring the condition of glass objects of cultural importance. Dr. Loew is PI of the grant, being carried out in collaboration with the Library and Catholic University.