Real-time monitor detects SARS-CoV-2 virus variants in five minutes

Developed by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, the inexpensive, proof-of-concept device is claimed to be the most sensitive detector available with the potential to monitor for other respiratory virus aerosols. The team’s work is detailed in Nature Communications.

The research team from the McKelvey School of Engineering and the School of Medicine consists of Rajan Chakrabarty, the Harold D. Jolley Career Development Associate Professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in McKelvey Engineering; Joseph Puthussery, a postdoctoral research associate in Chakrabarty’s lab; John Cirrito, professor of neurology; and Carla Yuede, associate professor of psychiatry, both at the School of Medicine.

“There is nothing at the moment that tells us how safe a room is,” Cirrito said in a statement. “If you are in a room with 100 people, you don’t want to find out five days later whether you could be sick or not. The idea with this device is that you can know essentially in real time, or every five minutes, if there is a live virus.”