A small lab in southern Indiana is on the cusp of a big breakthrough

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The hands of a child share many things from food to germs and keeping them clean is a tough job for teachers like Cydney Raymond.

"We've had the flu going around for the past two weeks," Raymond said while overseeing students at Vanguard Academy in Prospect. "We just had two come back from being out all week long."

"The most is when they sneeze and forget to do this," she said covering her face with her arm. "You'll see snot on a spelling test and it's not the best."

But what if, instead of bleaching the desks and chairs, you could simply have soap built into the table itself.

"Oh that would be awesome," Raymond said of the possibility. "I would want one of those tomorrow."

The patented new technology is closer that you might think. Inside a small lab at the Purdue Research Park in New Albany, Craig Kalmer and Dr. Thomas Hopkins say they're developing technology which may put the perils of a classroom to rest -- It's called Nouvex.

"It's a material that renders anything we apply it to antimicrobial -- Germ resistant," Kalmer said.

It works like a super soap, but instead of spraying cleaner onto a surface, the surface itself is clean forever. Scientists say they've found a way to build the germ-killing compound into almost any material.

Instead of wiping off your counter top, desktop, or door handle, the germ killing chemicals are already there -- making the surface its own cleaner.

"We make it here in the lab. It's a two step process and it can come out in two forms either as a liquid or a solid," Dr. Hopkins said. "Two monomers make a co-polymer one is bio friendly and then there is one known to be anti-microbial."

The Department Homeland Security funded the research behind Nouvex after terrorists attacked the U.S. Senate building with anthrax.

"The original goal of what we were trying to do is create bio warfare remediation agents," Professor Youngblood explained. "If somebody detonates a bomb full of anthrax on the street, well, it's kind of deadly -- how do you clean it up?"

Purdue Polyscientist Jeffrey Youngblood had the technology sitting on a shelf in his lab for years. Potential answers to dramatically reducing the spread of deadly and daily viruses like the flu, staph infections and strep throat.

"There's something known as the 'valley of death' when it comes to research and essentially the federal government funds fundamental research and when you are no longer fundamental, they stop funding it," Youngblood said.

Kalmer and Hopkins brought Nouvex back to life in 2011, forming Poly Group in New Albany to take the technology to market. Four years and more than $2 million later, its now up for EPA approval.

Before going to the EPA, Kalmer said the company had to make sure the substance would not be harmful when children and adults come into contact with it.

"Our materials came back as being virtually non-toxic," Kalmer said.

The EPA has 18 months to respond to the Poly Group application.

"It's very exciting. It gets a little tedious because you started in 2011 and go through this process -- all the science -- to get to the point you are today, but when you started talking about it you remember what this can really mean from the standpoint of day to day living," Kalmer said. "Less time loss for business, less illness in the classroom, less passing of germs and disease in a hospital or a healthcare facility."

"This is something we feel has applications in innumerable end uses," Hopkins said. However, he's clear about what the super soap will not do.

"It won't cure everything. It won't prevent you from getting sick, but the idea is it's going to mitigate and reduce the potential," He said. "No, don't throw your vacuum away. You still have to clean the house, but it's going to give you a little protection."

For teachers like Cydney Raymond, a little protection could go a long way.