Augusta University professor Stephen Hsu has done it all — from spending four years as an ESPN sports reporter to researching a potential cure for long COVID.

Now, Hsu has used a compound formed from green tea, known as EC16, to invent a new nanotechnology platform known as FAST, or ​​Facilitated Self-Assembling Technology, which he presented during his keynote address at the 8th World Congress on Infectious Diseases in Rome, Italy, in June. Using this process, water-insoluble particles can become water-soluble within a span of 20 minutes.

“When we mentioned that to people, nanotechnology experts, they just bluntly told us, ‘That’s impossible. You cannot make any meaningful nanoparticles from your methods,’” Hsu said. “But we did.”

Unlike current methods, FAST is efficient and cost-effective, doesn’t require engineering or additives, and the resulting particles are structurally equivalent.