Soon Covid-19 tests directly on his smartphone?
This is the story of a meeting between researchers from Lille and Marseille.
From the beginning of the pandemic, this multidisciplinary project was born from an unprecedented and close collaboration between 3 partners:
IEMN (Pr Sabine Szunerits, Dr Rabah Boukherroub, Quentin Pagneux), un laboratoire de biologie des anticorps de l’université de Marseille et du CNRS (Dr Christian Cambillau et Dr Alain Roussel) et le Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille (CHU Lille) (Pr David Devos, avec des virologistes Dr Kazali Alidjinou, Dr Ilka Engelmann et des spécialistes des maladies infectieuses Dr Emmanuel Faure et Pr Julien Poissy, Dr Anne Sophie Rolland).
The device is based on the grafting of small antibodies called "nanobodies" on the surface of an electrode to perform electrochemical measurements. The interaction between the "nanobody" immobilized on the surface of the electrode and the viral particle induces a change in current. The test uses an electrochemical technique that allows the rapid detection of this signal within 10 minutes. This is a revolutionary and novel technique that reveals the living virus; it therefore represents a test of "infectivity", a test of active infection of covid-19; if it is positive it means that the person carries an active living virus and not an old contamination! The technology developed in this project is very innovative and gives the device an undeniable competitive advantage.
