SAN DIEGO — UC San Diego received a $15 million dollar cryptocurrency donation to create a new institute to research airborne diseases.
Last week, CBS 8 reported on research that confirmed that coastal water pollution, like what we often see in Imperial Beach, can transfer to the atmosphere in sea spray aerosol.
That means people well beyond the coastline might be breathing in bacteria from the sewage contaminating the water.
"Our goal now is to really understand how frequently it happens, how far it goes, how it changes with seasons," said UCSD professor Kim Prather.
The crypto donation will help researchers answer these questions. Prather just published a paper proving the sewage in the water is also in the air.
"We showed up to three-quarters of the bacteria you're inhaling in the air down there comes directly from the Tijuana River," she said.
Prather said this type of research has never been done before. She will help lead the new Meta-Institute for Airborne Disease in a Changing Climate which will continue research in Imperial Beach. They hope to learn how people's health is being impacted.
The crypto donation came from 29-year-old Vitalik Buterin. He is the world's youngest crypto billionaire.
"Because of the pandemic, he's been one of the people trying to understand the airborne nature of viruses," Prather said.
Buterin created one of the world’s leading blockchain networks.
"H's a really big deal, Vitalik, like one of the foundational pioneers in the industry," said Pat Duffy, the co-founder of the Giving Block.
Duffy is an expert in crypto fundraising and co-founded a company that specializes in it. He said thousands of donations are made through crypto.
"If it's a really big donation, if it's in the U.S. in particular, then it's tax motivated in that you don't have to pay capital gains tax on the crypto you donate. It's the same as stocks," he said.
UCSD said it used a local service to convert this crypto donation into U.S. dollars. This is one of the biggest crypto donations a university in the United States has ever received.
After the Imperial Beach research, the university hopes to go global. They want to see how bacteria travels from water-to-air in other areas around the world.
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