Israeli Innovation – Speeding Diagnostic Time

Israeli tech may help drastically reduce coronavirus diagnostic time. The new technology was developed by researchers at Bar Ilan University JPost

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, one of the most pressing medical challenges that areas massively affected by the crisis face is the need to test a high number of people who might have been infected in a short amount of time. New technology developed by researchers at Bar Ilan University might assist them in the mission, drastically cutting the time needed to analyze saliva samples.

Dr. Amos Danielli of the Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering first developed a technology for sensitive detection of virus-specific RNA sequences in 2007 to address cattle diseases. Since then, the same technology has been re-adapted for multiple viruses including Zika

“When I started to hear about the coronavirus I thought that we should work to adapt it to that as well. We collaborate with several labs in China and Vietnam, and they were telling me that the time they needed to analyze the saliva samples was severely limiting the amount of people they could test every day. I though this could help,” he said.

Danielli explained that the general methodology that allows scientists to test someone for the presence of a virus consists in attaching the virus’ RNA to a fluorescent molecule that emits light when illuminated by a laser beam. However, when using the standard technology, the concentrations of RNA is very low and so is the signal emitted. For existing devices to detect it, the sequence has to be duplicate multiple times, and each duplication cycle takes about 35 seconds.

“We have found a way that only required 5 or 6 duplication cycles as opposed to 30, by adding magnetic particles that help us concentrate the fluorescent molecules and aggregate them inside the laser beam, thereby multiplying the signal strength by several orders of magnitude,” he said.

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