A device that neutralizes airborne coronaviruses like the ones that cause bird and swine flu?
Dr. Bill Kedia was skeptical as he read about the technology developed by Rajah Vijay Kumar of Bengaluru, India-based Scalene Cybernetics in a late-2019 science-journal article.
But the Hudson primary care physician, co-founder of startup MedAir Labs in Solon, was intrigued enough to contact Kumar. And then COVID-19 hit.
Subsequent testing of the invention at independent labs in the Netherlands and at the University of Missouri showed that the device was 95% effective in neutralizing the virus that, by early 2020, was on the brink of shutting the world down.
“That’s when we knew, at least in my mind, that we had something that was game-changing, that was revolutionary, that could help cut this pandemic short and, in fact, potentially could stop it in its tracks,” Kedia says.
“We formed a relationship with him … and managed to sign an agreement to be a manufacturer and distributor of the product [in the United States].”
That product is the Serenio, a cylindrical unit 10 inches long and 10 pounds in weight that passes an electrical current through a “super-alloy” composed of 27 metals.
Kedia explains that the process continuously generates photons, defined as basic units of light, that hit molecules of air, dust, etc. and knock subatomic particles called electrons off them.
Each negatively charged electron binds to a coronavirus’s positively charged spike protein — the spike protein that seeks to attach to a negatively charged ACE2 receptor site in one of the body’s cells, particularly those in the lungs.
“The spike is disabled,” Kedia says of the result. He compares the process to placing a sheet of plastic between a refrigerator magnet and the appliance. “The magnet doesn’t attach to the fridge.”
The $3,800 unit, which neutralizes coronaviruses in contiguous spaces up to 1,000 square feet, can be placed on a wall-mounted arm, moveable tripod or tabletop. It plugs into a standard grounded electrical outlet and uses the same amount of energy as a 40-watt lightbulb.
Unlike air-filtration systems, there is no time lag in effectiveness.
“You just leave it on, and it can run 24/7, continuously, without any issues,” Kedia says.
More than 150,000 Serenios have been manufactured by other companies and installed worldwide.
With help from a third-party manufacturer in Solon, MedAir already has installed multiple units at St. Francis School in Cleveland, St. Anthony of Padua School in Akron, surgery centers in Middleburg Heights and in a few southern Ohio homes.
Prospective clients include two large school systems and a national gym chain.
“It has the ability to save millions of lives,” Kedia says.
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