Only a select number of state and local laboratories have permission from US health officials to use diagnostic tests for COVID-19, a coronavirus-caused disease. If the virus is spreading nationwide, most communities do not have access to the necessary tests.
Purdue University biomedical engineers have developed a handheld paper device that quickly and accurately detects a different strain of coronavirus, MERS-CoV, even in really small quantities. A clear test result can be read directly from the device itself, making it portable.
Because the device isn’t specific to any virus, the same platform could be used to detect the COVID-19 strain. But developing a process to manufacture it would cost at least a couple of million dollars.
A research paper on the device recently published in the journal ACS Omega.
For further information, visit Purdue University.
