Smartphone Attachment to Detect Those Infected with Viruses, Bacteria in Minutes

APRIL 27TH, 2020 MEDGADGET EDITORS MEDICINE, PUBLIC HEALTH

As the current COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, there is movement
toward restarting life under a “new normal”. The virus may be with us
for a long time, but widespread, rapid, and accurate testing may be a
way forward. Knowing which individuals have to quarantine themselves
and which are free of the virus would go a long way toward a rapid
recovery of economic and social activities. Researchers at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have now developed a cheap,
sensitive, and accurate device for the detection of a wide array of
pathogenic bacteria and viruses.

Reported in the journal Lab on a Chip, the device can produce results
within about 30 minutes, and it costs only about $50 to manufacture.
The developers of the new technology believe that it may be fast and
sufficiently accurate enough to screen airline passengers before
flights and in many other similar venues where a lot of people are
gathered in small spaces.

“This test can be performed rapidly on passengers before getting on a
flight, on people going to a theme park or before events like a
conference or concert,” said Brian Cunningham, the lead author of the
study. “Cloud computing via a smartphone application could allow a
negative test result to be registered with event organizers or as part
of a boarding pass for a flight. Or, a person in quarantine could give
themselves daily tests, register the results with a doctor, and then
know when it’s safe to come out and rejoin society.”

The device was originally designed to spot bacteria and viruses in
horses, particularly ones that are known not to affect humans.
However, the same technology should work for a host of viruses and
bacteria that are pathogenic to humans.

The device holds a small cartridge with reagents and an input port to
present the sample. It attaches to a smartphone, which it uses to
detect fluorescent dyes that bind to the RNA of target pathogens. Some
preparation is required before the device does its magic, but the
researchers are working on integrating those reagent steps as well.

Study in Lab on a Chip: Smartphone-Based Multiplex 30-minute Nucleic
Acid Test of Live Virus from Nasal Swab Extract

Via: University of Illinois