PHOTOCHEMICAL

and one for Leishmaniasis. “The current plan is to use this new device for our research programs and to develop other inactivated vaccine candidates against parasites, bacteria and viruses,” Ragan said. “This device will help create the vaccine material needed for preclinical testing.”

What’s more, the VacCIRAPTOR could inspire new ways of making vaccines for polio, influenza and other viruses more quickly, efficiently and safely, in areas of the world where access to vaccines remains a challenge, Goodrich added.

The collaboration on the VACCIRAPTOR photochemical reactor received a boost from the Anschutz Foundation last year. The team won a portion of a $2 million gift to CSU that is funding projects aimed at preventing future pandemics. Mizia’s team at the Powerhouse Energy Campus is using that funding to continue refining the device’s design, including better thermal management and touchscreen user controls.

Goodrich reflected on the partnership with Mizia and the team that’s bringing CSU’S vaccine research capabilities to new heights.

“Innovation is really bringing together people with different talents and different skillsets to work on a problem,” Goodrich said. “You need people with an engineering background. You need people who know how to wire circuits and put light systems in place and design monitoring devices and flow systems. You need people who have the biology background as to how to grow the virus. None of this gets done without collaboration and cooperation such as we have here at CSU.”