SafeTraces Leads $39 Million ARPA-H BREATHE Program for Indoor Air Quality

SafeTraces has been selected as a Prime Performer for the ARPA-H Building Resilient Environments for Air and Total Health (BREATHE) program, as announced in a press release. The initiative, under a multi-year other transaction agreement (OTA) worth up to $39 million, aims to develop and deploy real-time biosensors, risk assessment software, and automated building controls to improve indoor air quality.

SafeTraces will lead a team comprising Siemens, Ginkgo Bioworks, Gate Scientific, Stanford University School of Medicine, Penn State University, Uniformed Services University, Metis Foundation, and Linda Lee Consulting. The team will support the Defense Health Agency (DHA) within the U.S. Department of War, focusing on enhancing health readiness and biodefense at facilities like Walter Reed Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center.

The BREATHE program targets the development of tools to sense airborne bioaerosols, assess indoor air quality exposure risk, and deliver smart building interventions. This effort is crucial as most people spend over 90% of their time indoors, where the risk of airborne infection transmission is higher. SafeTraces' existing platforms, such as the veriDART® and PathogenSentinel™, will be further advanced to meet the program's goals.