New face mask innovation can detect COVID-19

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The UC San Diego nano engineers have created a color-changing strip test kit which could be attached in front of a face mask to detect the coronavirus.
• The kit can yield a fluid that could indicate whether the mask-wearer has come in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 or has contracted the virus.
• The innovation can be crucial in determining the presence of COVID-19 and could be used as a tool to prevent the worsening of the pandemic.

A new innovation in the pipeline aims to detect the presence of COVID-19 in the air — through a color-changing strip mounted on a face mask that is similar to a traditional pregnancy test.

Initiated by UC San Diego nano engineers, the project received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Radical (RADx) program.

Scientists have developed a small test kit that could be hooked at the front of a face mask. The kit can be mass-produced at a price of around three cents.

Upon using the masks for about 4-5 hours, particles would be able to determine whether the wearer had encountered the virus, or if he or she had already been infected.

“In many ways, masks are the perfect ‘wearable’ sensor for our current world,” professor of nanoengineering at the California university and project lead Jesse Jokerst said. “We’re taking what many people are already wearing and repurposing them, so we can quickly and easily identify new infections and protect vulnerable communities.”

The wearer would need to crack a small blister pack, that would yield a fluid on the test kit, indicating whether there are present proteases, protein-cleaving molecules that came from COVID-19.

The NIH grant program has given a total of $107 million which is being allocated to 49 different projects from 43 institutions that are developing “non-traditional viral screening approaches, such as biological or physiological markers, new analytical platforms with novel chemistries or engineering, rapid detection strategies, point-of-care devices, and home-based testing technologies.”

Functionally, the product would serve as a smoke detector as the test strip changes color to determine the presence of COVID-19, Jokerst said.

“Think of this as a surveillance approach, similar to having a smoke detector in your house,” he noted. “This would just sit in the background every day and if it gets triggered, then you know there’s a problem and that’s when you would look into it with more sophisticated testing.”

The test kit can also detect other potential forms of coronaviruses such as the 2003 SARS virus and MERS virus, the professor added.

“To solve a problem as complicated as COVID-19, we need ideas, tools, and technologies that challenge the way we think about pandemic control,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., in a statement.

The invention can be vital in preventing potential outbreaks and it could be beneficial for health care clinics, nursing homes, homeless shelters, prisons, and other places where people should remain in close proximity.

Source: Good News Network