Scientists develop smartphone-linked COVID testing method, can deliver result in 15 mins

Scientists have developed a portable smartphone-linked coronavirus testing method, which they claim can provide results within 15 minutes without intensive laboratory methods. According to journal Science Advances, the scientists explained that the new approach pairs a fluorescence microscope readout device with a smartphone to determine the quantity of virus on a patient sample. They also added that the new technique is a saliva-based smartphone testing platform. 

Scientists, including Bo Ning from Tulane University School of Medicine in the US, said that they used an assay made of CRISPR/Cas12a molecules to test 12 people infected with the virus and six healthy controls, which was then read out using the smartphone platform. Further, it was noted that the technique works as effectively as the well-established RT-PCR method. In the study, the researchers said that the new approach offers to rapidly expand coronavirus screening capacity. 

The said, “We believe this smartphone platform, a similar future application, offers the potential to rapidly expand COVID-19 screening capacity, and potentially simplify the verification of contact tracing, to improve local containment and inform regional disease control efforts”. 

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Simpler, safer testing 

Currently, the coronavirus tests require swabbing the upper part of the throat behind the nose, requiring medical professionals in full protective gear to collect the samples before running tests. However, as SARS-CoV-2 virus may be equally present in the saliva during early infection, scientists say that the saliva-based COVID tests could enable comparably reliable but simpler and safer testing. The researchers explained that to develop the platform for the new technique, they built a prototype assay chip that uses CRISPR/Cas12a molecules to better detect the viral genetic material within a saliva sample. 

The scientist integrated the chip into a smart-phone based fluorescence microscope readout device, which captures and analyses images to determine whether the virus is present above a threshold concentration. According to the study, the researcher then used this design to analyse saliva from 12 patients with coronavirus and six health controls and found that the technique successfully distinguished between patients with and without the virus. Based on the research, scientists now suggest that saliva may provide a robust means of diagnosis after infection. They also believe that a future version of the chip used in this technique could contain pre-loaded Reagan’s and sample controls and a custom smartphone app could enable secure and wireless test data reporting. 

(Image: Rep/Unsplash) 

(With inputs from PTI) 

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