IIT-Delhi incubation startup develops affordable antiviral fabric

New Delhi: An incubation start-up of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi has developed an affordable high-performance medical textile which claims to destroy 99.9 percent of the bacteria and viruses within 30 minutes.

According to the latest announcement made by the premier institute, one of its deep-tech healthcare start-ups namely Fabiosys Innovations have developed a medical textile called Fabium. Unlike an ordinary antimicrobial fabric that can inhibit microbes in a span of 24 hours, Fabium has been developed using a technology called Hi-PAT, which makes it highly effective against bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

The team behind this innovation has successfully completed large-scale manufacturing trials in collaboration with a textile industry partner in Delhi-NCR region to ensure that the large-scale fabric manufacturing can be done while maintaining its high-efficiency and affordability. According to the markers, the innovative textile can be made with any kind of textile, be it natural or synthetic; woven, non-woven or knitted.

The startup was founded in 2019 by Mr Yatee Gupta, an IIT Delhi alumnus. He is currently working under the mentorship of Professor Samrat Mukhopadhyay from the Department of Textile and Fibre Engineering, IIT Delhi. Yatee Gupta, Founder, Fabiosys Innovations, said, "The affordability of Fabium is due to the technology behind it rather than cheap labour cost. A market research done by Team Fabiosys indicates that our cost-effective novel chemical formulation and unique textile processing technology make Fabium® comparatively extremely affordable antiviral fabric. We are receiving encouraging response from the industry for manufacturing and distribution of Fabium products.

The announcement also states that the fabric is free from formaldehyde and metal nanoparticles, and is a rather breathable type of textile. With the launch of one-of-its-kind textile, Fabium may be useful in applications like masks and coveralls (PPE), where breathability is almost always an issue.

The duo started exploring Medical Textiles as an emerging Industry in India in 2018 itself, before the pandemic gripped nations across the world, and started developing infection-proof fabrics to prevent cross contaminations in hospitals.

Professor Samrat Mukhopadhyay, mentor to Fabiosys, has said that the intention of this innovation is also to break the public stereotype that high-quality products will always be expensive. The makers have said they would want to make infection-proof products, such as Fabium itself, as easily available and affordable as a bar of soap.

Fabiosys was recognised as one of the most promising startups by IIT Delhi Alumni Association having won the "IIT Delhi Alumni Faculty and Startup Awards 2021".