Researchers Set Record For Detecting Smallest Virus
- National Science Foundation August 29th, 2012
- Source: http://news.science360.gov/obj/story/385abd4c-7240-48d3-8caf-d1b37a32fd0e/researchers-set-record-detecting-smallest-virus
Researchers at Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) have created an ultra-sensitive biosensor capable of identifying the smallest single virus particles in solution, an advance that may revolutionize early disease detection in a point-of-care setting and shrink test result wait times from weeks to minutes. Their technique is a major advance in a series of experiments to devise a diagnostic method sensitive enough to detect and size a single virus particle in a doctor’s office or field clinic, without the need for special assay preparations or conditions. Normally, such assessment requires the virus to be measured in the vacuum environment of an electron microscope, which adds time, complexity and considerable cost. Instead, the researchers were able to detect the smallest RNA virus particle MS2, with a mass of only 6 attograms, by amplifying the sensitivity of a biosensor.
