Whether infected or not, antigen or PCR testing has become the symbol of COVID-19.
In order to better prepare for any future pandemics, an EU project involving Johannes Kepler University Linz aims to focus on developing better testing options, including testing for other infections and to support preventive healthcare.
The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed an impressive surge of developments in the area of life sciences. In addition to historic advances in vaccine development, there are now many new diagnostic products on the market as well. The current situation seems to have served as a catalyst to develop diagnostic tools aimed at detecting and exploring not only infectious agents, but other diseases as well.
These types of tests are not only valuable during pandemics. Recently, there has been a growing sense of just how important "point-of-care tests" are in an effort to support preventative healthcare. The objective is to obtain results faster, be more cost effective, and suitable to use on more than one pathogen at a time. Georg Gramse (Institute of Biophysics at the JKU, Department of Nanoelectronics) remarked: "Rapid, like an antigen test, but more of a PCR test."
EU Funding
The new tests are part of a new, international EU project in the "ATTRACT Phase 2" research program. With funding in the amount of € 2 million euros, the goal is to develop an innovative sensor platform. The JKU is involved in developing an extremely high-resolution electrical sensor. Last year, Gramse and his colleagues published the basic foundation of this measuring principle which operates in the microwave range and showed that it is so sensitive, it can, for example, even be used to measure the chemical reactions of a few molecules on battery surfaces. Gramse added, "We have the principle, and now we can apply it to this particular application." By developing a new microfluidic system and special selection of biomarkers, the sensor principle will be used to detect pathogens at the single-particle level. By miniaturizing and using different biomarkers at the same time, it should simultaneously detect or exclude several diseases.
Gramse spoke about the objective and stated: "It will be a lot of work; it should be simple, like an antigen test, but as accurate as a PCR test, as well as faster and cheaper."
Above all, however, there is the advantage of having just one test to detect multiple infections. This will be useful at any time, not just during a pandemic. Gramse added: "The trend is to move away from treating diseases and instead, working on preventing them in the first place. Inexpensive testing could revolutionize healthcare." This would not only help people to stay healthy, but also ease the strain on health insurance carriers.
More about the new sensor technology : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/16136829/2021/17/29, opens an external URL in a new window
More about the project:
https://attract-eu.com/, opens an external URL in a new window