A new approach to the rapid testing of COVID-19

A point of care, rapid testing for SARS-CoV-2 project led by Scientia Professor Justin Gooding, Co-Director at NSSN and the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine has received funding under the newly established UNSW COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Fund.

Current methods for detecting COVID-19 include using laboratory-based qPCR tests that detect the viral RNA or lateral flow devices that detect a viral infection by quantifying the presence of antibodies produced by the immune system in response to viral infections.

Professor Gooding said the new rapid testing technology could be the best of both worlds.

“Our new technology detects viral RNA but does it without requiring amplification. So it detects the virus rapidly like a lateral flow device whilst giving direct evidence of the virus,” said Professor Gooding.

The study utilises dark-field optical microscopy to measure the scattering arising from individual nanoparticles and identifies the colour of each nanoparticle using computer algorithms.

“The information from the sensor can be read out using a mobile phone-based microscope and can be rapidly communicated to where it needs to go,” Professor Gooding said.

Project collaborators include Professor William Rawlinson and Dr Sacha Stelzer-Braid from Serology, Virology and OTDS Laboratories (SAViD), NSW Health Pathology based at Prince of Wales Hospital, the busiest COVID-19 testing laboratories in NSW, and Dr Padmavathy Bakthavathsalam from UNSW School of Chemistry.

The integration of the portable device and digital quantification of the dark field image obtained from the sensor allows for automated analysis that can reduce the infection risk for healthcare workers and improve turnaround time for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis.

Read more about the UNSW COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Fund here.

Media: Shahrzad Abbasi —  0466548145