Say hello to user-friendly air sampling.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) consultants play a key role in maintaining the high quality of indoor air. Measurement of allergens in indoor environments can help determine the cause of allergy symptoms and evaluate allergen reduction efforts. Air sampling for allergens has been a complicated and cumbersome process, involving specialized equipment and sampling methods.

InBio has developed Apollo, a modern solution to simplify air sampling for the IAQ industry.  Apollo is a quiet, lightweight ambient air sampling device designed to streamline airborne allergen exposure assessments. Easy to use, Apollo is ideal for air sampling  in homes, schools, laboratories, and workplaces. Sampling with Apollo can be set up in just minutes. Proprietary filters and validated flow rates ensure allergen capture. Research made Real!

Apollo’s replaceable filters can be sent to InBio laboratories for MARIA® and ELISA testing.

Key Features of Apollo include:

• User-friendly; simple as plugging in!
• Whisper quiet operation; under 40 decibels
• High flow rate (>500Lmin)
• Long-duration sampling; set it and forget it
• Improved allergen capture over IOMs and electrostatic dust collectors (EDC)
• Highly reproducible results

Improved Allergen Capture

Traditional methods for aerosolised allergen sampling include Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) samplers and Electrostatic Dust Collectors (EDC). IOMs are designed for personal sampling using a specialized pump, which require calibration, and are loud/cumbersome to use. EDCs only allow for passive collection of settled dust.

When designing Apollo, InBio aimed to enhance the user experience while improving the sampling methods available to the IAQ industry. The result is a quiet, high throughput air sampler which allows for efficient, easy, and reproducible allergen sampling. Compared to traditional air sampling methods, Apollo demonstrates improved sensitivity and collects up to 10x more allergen across a range of indoor and food allergens – and is as simple as plugging in!

Figure 1 – Representative data from 1 household. IOM and Apollo devices were run simultaneously for 10 hours, and EDC and Apollo for 7 days. Results are provided in ng allergen per filter on a log scale.

Clinical Trials

When conducting allergen immunotherapy clinical trials, it is important to perform allergen exposure measurements. Previously this has been performed by collecting settled dust samples with InBio’s DUSTREAM collector. Now, using Apollo, aerosolised allergen can also be assessed.

The Apollo is currently being used in clinical trial settings in collaboration with two of the UK’s largest universities, including the University of Manchester, assessing allergen exposure in patients’ homes. This data is providing valuable insight for clinicians to determine what allergens patients are being exposed to in their homes and linking this information with symptoms scores.

Ongoing R&D

Scientists at InBio are currently working to expand the capabilities of the Apollo by investigating the effectiveness of the device for measuring microbes and are exploring potential collaborations with Cardiff Metropolitan University. Future R&D will focus on the detection of bacteria, molds and viruses.

In addition, early data suggests that the Apollo is an effective method for the capture of endotoxin. Through an optimized extraction method, we can measure endotoxin and InBio’s full panel of allergens from a single sample.

Watch this space for upcoming developments!