Nasal Swabs for your Mobile
A low-cost smartphone test can identify pathogens in 30 minutes
Current point-of-care systems for nucleic acid-based detection of pathogens require highly trained users and results can take days. Now, Brian Cunningham and his team at the University of Illinois have created a smartphone device that can detect viruses and bacteria within 30 minutes in animal trials. If the device works in humans, it could be used for rapid detection of pathogens like SARS-CoV-2.
Within 15 minutes of inserting a nasal swab into the device, the microbe’s RNA is amplified into millions of copies. Fluorescent dye stains these copies and glows green when excited by the blue light from a smartphone, which is then picked up by the camera.
A conceptual drawing of the system, illustrating how the system would work for detection of pathogens within a droplet of blood. Credit: Brian Cunningham.
“By using a smartphone for detection, our goal is to make the instrument as low-cost as possible so millions of systems can be deployed,” says Cunningham. “The data can also be shared with healthcare providers so they can more accurately identify trends and perform contact tracing.”
- F Sun et al., Lab on a Chip, 20, 1621 (2020). DOI: 10.1039/D0LC00304B
By the time I finished my degree in Microbiology I had come to one conclusion – I did not want to work in a lab. Instead, I decided to move to the south of Spain to teach English. After two brilliant years, I realized that I missed science, and what I really enjoyed was communicating scientific ideas – whether that be to four-year-olds or mature professionals. On returning to England I landed a role in science writing and found it combined my passions perfectly. Now at Texere, I get to hone these skills every day by writing about the latest research in an exciting, creative way.
