63721AntimicrobialClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKNoBACZ Ltd, a spin-out company of the University of Cambridge, is developing an environmentally friendly antimicrobial, antiviral coating that prevents common-touch surfaces from harbouring viruses during and beyond the COVID-19 outbreak. The Company has developed an innovative, customisable antimicrobial coating that has a multitude of applications across industries. The coating is effective against pathogenic bacteria through a contact-killing mechanism. The active agents in these materials are copper compounds and there is strong evidence that copper reduces the viability of the virus strain that causes COVID-19 \[DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2004973\] We now intend to test the coating against a range of viruses, including the COVID-19 virus. If successful, the coating will be applicable to a wide variety of materials---from wood, to cloth, to metal and steel-- that are located in areas where the public congregates, such as public transport, office buildings, hospitals, gyms, care-homes, supermarkets etc. Such an invention would prove to be invaluable as countries emerge from lockdown by helping to minimize virus transmission through surfaces. Applied as a liquid, the NoBACZ products are adhesive and water repellent and they rapidly form solid but flexible barriers that are robust enough to form semi-permanent coatings on any surface. Lifetime (anticipated to be months) is easily visualised through their distinct colour (deep green) and top up coating can be applied if required. The material is environmentally friendly, comprised from food-chain compatible reagents and manufacturing is straight-forward and easy to scale. The NoBACZ coating product will be investigated to confirm its activity against single strand RNA viruses like the coronavirus. NoBACZ will then iteratively test combinations and consistencies of different formulations in order to zero in on the most durable and widely applicable viricidal version. The target product profile is a coating, visible on any surface, such as a doorknob, a train hand rail, or a supermarket trolley handle, that kills any virus that happens to land on it but is vanilla safe to humans. This would reduce the labour-intensity of decontaminating high-traffic surface areas, ideally allowing cleaning and reapplication to occur only now and again vs the impracticality of several times a day with alcohol / cleaning agents. _ Additional Information for request: We have now successfully developed surface coatings with broad applicability. Moreover, the new materials have appropriate physicochemical properties for use as safe and affordable coatings and can be retrofitted to existing surfaces (e.g. painted on), as evidenced with a variety of surfaces from stiff fabric through to smooth plastics. Antiviral assays have been initiated, as per plan, but we have now identified additional manufacturing, regulatory and commercial knowledge gaps upon which successful commercial exploitation is likely to live or die. We have, therefore, designed several small blocks of work that will address these unknowns, taking this highly novel technology to a state of commercial readiness in a very short period. As reported by the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54500673), recent scientific findings from Australia's national science agency have shown that SARS-Cov-2can survive on surfaces for far longer than initially thought. The researchers have shown that the virus responsible for Covid-19 can remain infectious on surfaces such as plastic, glass and stainless steel for 28 days. Our technology, once commercialised, has the potential to greatly reduce viral transmission on many common touch surfaces, from door handles through to shopping trolleys and, crucially, by rendering high contact surfaces safe, it will aid society’s recovery of business, social, commuting, sporting and educational activities. We also anticipate these materials to be antibacterial which, if confirmed, would be an added benefit in healthcare, care home and food processing arenas. We plan, therefore, to now add bacterial contact killing assays to the list of tests with our materials (ie anti-viral and anti-bacterial assays).