# Plasmonic Inactivation of Virus and Mycoplasma Contaminants

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2021 · $330,000

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Biological pharmaceuticals, or “biologics”, are among the most important pharmaceuticals in development
today, and their safe manufacture is absolutely crucial for human health. A major problem faced by operators
of bioreactors, at both the laboratory scale and industrial scale, is microbial contamination as an integral risk of
any process that derives from live cell lines. The fundamental concern is to ensure that contaminated biologics
are not injected into the human body. To warrant contamination free biologics a terminal sterilization is often
necessary. The central challenge in this step is the inactivation or removal of microbial contaminates without
causing harm to the precious biologics. This work focuses on antibodies as representative biologics. Especially
for viral and mycoplasma contaminations the terminal sterilization step remains challenging due to the small
size of the pathogens. The industry standard today is removal through passive filtration using filter membranes
with pore diameters smaller or of the same size as the virus particles. This approach requires, however, long
processing times associated with high costs. Furthermore, ultrafiltration can induce antibody self-association
and is not compatible with emerging flexible, small-scale, point-of-care biologics fabrication technologies. The
need for new selective microbe inactivation strategies is also not limited to the field of biologics fabrication. The
Covid19 pandemic has recently illustrated the need for reliable virus inactivation strategies that selectively act
on the virus in tissues but not on proteins, for instance, to allow immunological assays of infected samples
outside of high containment laboratories. Light has sterilization properties, and UV-light has long been used to
inactivate a broad range of microbial pathogens. Unfortunately, it lacks specificity and also damages precious
biologics through reactive photochemistries driven by molecular absorptions in the UV range of the
electromagnetic spectrum. To overcome the shortcomings of both ultrafiltration and UV-irradiation as microbe
inactivation strategies, this proposal develops a plasmonically enhanced photonic inactivation method that
utilizes near-infrared (NIR) light for the selective inactivation of viruses and mycoplasma. As NIR radiation does
not overlap with molecular absorptions, the collateral damage on biologics is minimal. The proposed work will
reveal the fundamental working principles underlying plasmonic pathogen inactivation and implement magnetic
plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) that allow for an easy, contact-free removal of the nanomaterials from the
samples after sterilization. The specific aims of this application are to:
Aim 1: Achieve Reliable Virus Inactivation with NIR Light through Plasmonic Enhancement
Aim 2: Demonstrate a Plasmon-Enhancement Strategy for Mycoplasma Inactivation with NIR Light
Aim 3: Demonstrate Scalable Clearance of Virus and Mycoplasma with Magnetic Plasmonic...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10179915
- **Project number:** 1R01GM142012-01
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** SHYAMSUNDER ERRAMILLI
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $330,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-01 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10179915

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10179915, Plasmonic Inactivation of Virus and Mycoplasma Contaminants (1R01GM142012-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10179915. Licensed CC0.

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