# Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission (EMIT-2) using Innovative Technologies and Designs in Controlled Environments

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2021 · $3,024,086

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract – Overall Component
We propose multidisciplinary studies to comprehensively evaluate the roles of contact, fomite, sprayborne, and
aerosol transmission and how they interact with ventilation to facilitate human-to-human influenza transmission
using a suite of innovative technologies for improved sampling, fractionation, culture, and characterization of
influenza virus aerosols. These studies leverage our highly diverse team of experts in bioengineering, aerosol
science, human challenge and clinical trials, influenza virology and immunology, infectious diseases
epidemiology, aerobiology, and computational fluid dynamics. The proposal is organized around two research
projects and three cores. In Research Project 1, “Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission using a
Randomized Controlled Trial (EMIT-2-RCT)” we will study the impact of two interventions a) ventilation and air
sanitation and b) hand hygiene and face shields on transmission of circulating seasonal influenza from
naturally infected cases to serologically susceptible volunteers. We will use the RCT to test hypotheses that
aerosol transmission is the dominant mode, is associated with greater frequency of fever and systemic
symptoms in secondary cases, and that in the absence of hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies, antibodies
against other targets will strongly correlate with protection from infection and disease. In Research Project 2,
“Developing and Applying Analytical Models of Influenza Transmission” we will use computational fluid
dynamics and novel new aerosol measurements to a) design interventions and sampling strategies for the
RCT enabling us to distinguish short- and long-range aerosol transmission from sprayborne transmission, b)
define the Wells-Riley aerosol quantum of infection in terms of measurable quantities and assess risk at the
recipient breathing zone level in both well-mixed and non-well-mixed indoor air conditions, and c) extend our
models to household and animal studies and create practical analytical tools for public health scientists to
collect data and assess risk in the field. The Research Projects will be enabled by an Advanced Bioaerosol
Technology Core (ABTC) that will develop new viral aerosol sampling and culture systems and methods for
both ambient and exhaled breath sampling that will validate the RCT design and provide critical inputs to the
analytical models. A Clinical and Biostatistics Core (CBC) will provide the clinical infrastructure to perform the
complex quarantine studies. The Administrative Core will manage these tightly integrated components to mold
transdisciplinary insights into the dynamics and drivers of influenza transmission between humans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10260845
- **Project number:** 1U19AI162130-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** Donald Kirby Milton
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $3,024,086
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10260845

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10260845, Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission (EMIT-2) using Innovative Technologies and Designs in Controlled Environments (1U19AI162130-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10260845. Licensed CC0.

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