COVID-19 Virus Test Completed On-site in Just 5 Minutes

KAIST Professor Jeong Ki-hoon's Team Develops Ultrafast Real-Time PCR Technology Using Nano Plasmonic Structures

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A technology has been developed that can complete COVID-19 virus testing on-site within 5 minutes using simple equipment, instead of the conventional method that takes 1 hour and requires expensive large-scale equipment.

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 7th that Professor Kihoon Jung's research team from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering developed an ultra-fast real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology capable of rapid thermal cycling and real-time quantitative analysis through nanoplasmonic structures.

Nanoplasmonic structures refer to metal nanostructures smaller than the wavelength of light, where light and electrons interact at the boundary between the metal surface and dielectric when light is irradiated on the surface. They are mainly applied in the detection of biological substances and molecular diagnostics.

KAIST explained that this technology can significantly reduce the detection time for viruses such as COVID-19. Currently, COVID-19 is diagnosed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which involves reverse transcribing the viral RNA into complementary DNA and then amplifying the target DNA to detect it with a fluorescent probe. The problem with the existing method is that despite its high sensitivity and accuracy, the detection time is long, and samples must be transported to locations equipped with expensive large-scale equipment for diagnosis, limiting real-time on-site response.

The research team’s developed "real-time nanoplasmonic PCR" combines a nanoplasmonic substrate with high light absorption efficiency of white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a vacuum-designed microfluidic chip to rapidly amplify and quantitatively analyze small amounts of samples, enabling accurate virus detection in a short time. Using these features, it is expected to be used immediately at patient occurrence sites such as public places to block the spread of pathogenic viruses and overseas inflow.

The research team validated the technology using SARS-CoV-2 plasmid DNA, performing 40 cycles (95°C?60°C) within 5 minutes and quantitatively detecting the target virus with 91% amplification efficiency.

Professor Kihoon Jung said, "We have developed an ultra-fast molecular diagnostic method practically usable on-site," adding, "The real-time nanoplasmonic PCR technology provides a next-generation gene amplification platform for molecular diagnosis on-site and can contribute to preventing virus spread."

The research results were published on the 19th of last month in the international journal ACS Nano.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.