a PCR testing. The gadget tests blood samples and detects viruses using nanotechnology as long as the genetic information and viral component are present. The test was created by Debashis Chanda, a UCF professor of physics and nanoscience technology, and his teammates. He was brought up in India, and as a child his desire was to use science to make a difference.
Chanda shared that he was motivated by the dengue virus which affects people globally. He said, “Dengue is a model virus, it appears each year around the world and that affects millions of people in many places. So, that’s actually what motivated us to go after a virus that is known and appears each year. That’s something we wanted to study.” They discovered that their instrument generated speedy findings with a 95% accuracy rate. The next stage is to test with human blood; however, Chanda believes that the results will be similar.
Additionally, the researchers also aim to modify their gadget to make it capable of detecting any virus or disease, but Chanda stated that additional money is required to continue with that stage. He said, “Each square (on the device) could be made to detect various virus trends”. He also stated that his team began its experiments analyzing cow blood for dengue virus in 2017.
According to Chanda, this contains the coronavirus, and they would be able to identify the particular COVID-19 strain with the right genetic information and viral component. He claimed that its accuracy is equal to any gold-standard PCR test, and also delivers results considerably faster. Chanda’s team has previously received funding from the National Science Foundation and the University of Central Florida’s COVID-19 Artificial Intelligence and Big Data.
