Biosensor detects airborne bird flu in under 5 minutes
Summary
Now, thanks to research from Washington University in St. Louis published in a special issue of ACS Sensors on “breath sensing,” virus trackers have a way to monitor aerosol particles of H5N1. Chakrabarty noted that conventional test methods can take more than 10 hours — “too long to stop an outbreak.” The new biosensor works within five minutes, preserving the sample of the microbes for further analysis and providing a range of the pathogen concentration levels detected on a farm. The USDA also recently issued a conditional license for an avian flu vaccine, which could provide further relief to poultry farmers eager to lower egg prices. Chakrabarty’s senior staff scientist, Meng Wu, along with graduate student Joshin Kumar, undertook the laborious task of optimising the surface of the electrochemical biosensor to increase its sensitivity and stability for detection of the virus in trace amounts (less than 100 viral RNA copies per cubic meter of air). After months of trial and error, the team figured out the right recipe for modifying the carbon surface using a combination of graphene oxide and Prussian blue nanocrystals to increase the biosensor’s sensitivity and stability.