BINGHAMTON, NY – Binghamton University has received important funding to further its research on how to keep hospitals clean.

B-U recently won a grant from the National Science Foundation to see if UVC rays can kill the coronavirus on surfaces to help protect hospital workers.

The university is examining the power of UVC rays in an effort to protect N-95 masks so as to reduce the cost of buying new ones.

B-U Biomedical Engineering Chairman Kaiming Ye says he can foresee the UVC rays destroying the coronavirus on the outside.

“The question is the dosage. What is the right energy. What energy does the UVC light need to deliver, or will it emit the light as power enough to kill the virus. This is the core of our study,” says Ye.

Ye says he and his team have made strides in determining how the rays could help hospitals, using what they have learned to study how to combat the virus.

Eventually, Ye adds he would like to learn how to sterilize an entire room with the rays.
He’s also hopeful that researchers around the world could develop a vaccine by October.