Newly developed electronic “nose” can identify COVID-19 infection

The development of rapid diagnostic tools is the key to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, and new electronic-based “nose” detectors may help identify cases in 80 seconds.

“Electronic nose” test. Image Copyright: Kobi Snitz

Faster, cheaper and better way for COVID-19 testing

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest in developing fast, cost-effective, and easily deployable infection detection. Such measures enable better control and better tracking of infections.

However, despite increased speed and research efforts to increase speed Efficacy of The most commonly used method for detecting COVID-19 remains the PCR test. While this gives accurate results, the time required, training, and setup can potentially make it difficult to deploy this technique on a large scale and easily. As a result, the government has focused its testing efforts on key patient focus, such as drive-throughs and large testing clinics.

As a new initiative led by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, a team led by Professor Noam Sobel, head of the Department of Neurobiology, is now electronically based to detect COVID-19 infections in a faster way. I am developing a tool. A cheaper and more efficient way.

Electronic detection of infectious diseases has been a concept for many years, and the laboratory has been trying to adapt this method to COVID-19 for the past year. This technique relies on the characterization and detection of metabolites by devices that can identify the “smell” of metabolites produced by the metabolic process of infection.

Nevertheless, COVID-19 has proven to be difficult to detect, as it is a disease with metabolites that is particularly difficult to characterize. Correspondingly, most studies have focused on lab-based methods using samples that are already known to be infectious, but Professor Sobel wants to overturn this concept.

The Weizmann Institute of Science team has moved from lab-based testing to field-based testing and adjusted the method to better fit a more deployable strategy. The device currently being tested is a plastic 3D printing tool with a one-way valve that allows the patient to breathe, similar in appearance and size to a breathalyzer connected to a laptop. Researchers then set up a nearby inspection “drive-through” facility set up by the Israeli Red Cross to collect data from individuals undergoing inspection shortly after arrival.

This method provides results within 80 seconds of the test, significantly reducing the setup required and providing infection data that is much faster, faster, and more readily available than ongoing PCR tests. I will.

Difficulty in teaching the “nose” the smell of COVID-19

Data are currently being collected, analyzed, and categorized from patients, and these data are collected in an electronic “nose” COVID-19 learning program to learn how to detect infected individuals. This education is currently underway and results regarding the effectiveness of detection may take some time.

In fact, the characteristic metabolite profile of COVID-19, the “smell,” has yet to be found, making it difficult to teach this new device. Typical electronic detection works at specific endpoints, which are known disease profiles that the program can learn. However, the COVID-19 profile has not yet been fully characterized. It lacks the successful endpoints that typical machine learning requires, thus increasing the time required for the learning process.

Nevertheless, long-term education in COVID-19 detection is important for optimizing identification rates and providing more accurate tests. In addition, the research team’s field-based method is faster and provides more data than lab-based research, with the goal of accelerating this electronic “nose” learning process.

The field-based method also provides a large dataset that contains important data about individual differences in infection characteristics such as infection level. This helps laboratories better identify at-risk individuals or areas.

Researchers are confident that once the metabolite profile of COVID-19 is known, this new tool will be an immediately available new test method. Further testing is needed for new variants that have emerged in different countries, but this approach will significantly improve the speed, cost, and deployment of the COVID-19 test.