Colorful Disinfectant

The Ebola Crisis took the world by storm in 2014 when cases began to spread in West Africa. To aid in the Ebola outbreak, Columbia University hosted a design challenge with the goal of creating low-cost technology-driven, software and hardware solutions.

Highlight at work coloring the disinfectant blue, Kinnos.

Jason Kang, Katherine Jin, and Kevin Tyan rose to the challenge and created Highlight. Highlight is a powder additive that temporarily colors any disinfectant consisting of bleach. Since bleach is a clear cleaning solution, it is difficult to determine if contaminated surfaces have been cleaned. Sanitized surfaces are crucial in treating Ebola because the virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids of patients are infected. One out of every 20 deaths for the Ebola virus was a healthcare worker who contracted the disease while treating infected patients.

Highlight combats ineffective decontamination, often caused by human error from missing spots on surfaces. The user is able to visually confirm all areas were disinfectant properly based off of the colorful dye. The color additive helps prevent the spread of viruses and diseases of all kinds.

The Columbia University trio formed the company, Kinnos, Inc. in 2014 and has received four patents and two registered trademarks. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded Kinnos the 2018 Patents for Humanity Award that recognizes innovators who use game-changing technology to meet global humanitarian challenges. Kinnos collected other accolades such as being selected as finalists in the National Inventors Hall of Fame's Collegiate Inventors Competition and winning the USAID Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge, among many others.

Currently, Kinnos is continuing to raise the bar with its innovative disinfection technology especially now to help the world navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Kinnos is concentrating on creating a strong presence within the field of infection prevention.