Faster COVID-19 Test

Led by Peruvian physicist Ana Champi Farfán, researchers from the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) and specialists from the companies 2mi and VRS Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento created a portable graphene-based sensor that can detect the novel coronavirus in RNA or saliva samples. The process takes up to two minutes, according to a UFABC statement. The sensor is an electrochemical mini cell with a graphene oxide electrode, whose electrical properties change when it comes into contact with viral RNA. As a result, an electrical current turns on a red light in the presence of the virus or a green light in its absence. The researchers tested 300 sensors with RNA samples from the coronavirus and saliva provided by Instituto Adolfo Lutz in São Paulo and the Paraná Institute of Molecular Biology. A patent application has been filed for the device, which can also identify rabies and influenza.

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