Companies incubated at Dixie State University's Atwood Innovation Plaza are helping in the fight against COVID-19.
Innovation Plaza is a 55,000 square-foot state-of-the-art entrepreneurship center at Dixie State University (DSU) that offers resources for innovating and growing a business.
Director of Innovation Plaza, Colby Jenkins, joined us with some examples of those companies helping during the pandemic.
Steribin is a St. George-based start-up company that launched from Atwood Innovation Plaza. It is partnering with the City of St. George to disinfect the personal protective equipment used by many of the city’s employees and first responders. Steribin’s patent-pending device was originally developed to reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses in airports by sanitizing security bins in seconds; however, with the spread of COVID-19, the company is using its high-intensity pulse-lighting device to set up a mobile workstation in St. George.
Soft Cell is another Atwood Innovation Plaza company, Soft Cell Biological Research is offering easy, quick, and affordable COVID-19 testing. Soft Cell offers saliva or nasal swab testing, with a 24-hour turnaround, and can process 5,000 tests per day. Soft Cell expects to be able to process 15,000 tests per day by June. Saliva based testing is easily collected and carries more virus than nasal fluid.
In addition, DSU’s engineering faculty and students are using Innovation Plaza to 3D print ventilator splitters so healthcare facilities can use one ventilator on multiple patients at a time. In addition, the printers are being used to create face shields and masks that can be fitted with HEPA filters for healthcare facilities around the state.
You can learn more at innovation.dixie.edu.
