Identification of the corona virus in 15 minutes

A new development by Dr. Amos Danieli from Bar-Ilan University may shorten the diagnosis time of a corona patient to about 15 minutes instead of an hour today * The new technology, based on the combination of magnetic particles and optics, can identify about 100 patients quickly and reduce the waiting time. The Central Virology Laboratory of the Ministry of Health is aware of the research and is cooperating

The time of diagnosis is one of the biggest challenges in the treatment of corona patients. The long wait for the diagnosis of each person who arrives with a fever results in the exposure of many to the virus. Using the new technology, the saliva tests will be able to be deciphered in three quarters of the time. This is an innovative Israeli development that has already been proven against viruses such as Zika and is being used in the central virology laboratory of the Ministry of Health in Tel Hashomer. The development intended for the corona virus may shorten the diagnosis time in the laboratory to about 15 minutes.

How It Works? In Dr. Danieli's laboratory, a technology was developed for the sensitive optical detection of RNA by conjugating the RNA of the virus to a fluorescent molecule, which emits light when illuminated with a laser beam. But at low concentrations of RNA, the emitted signal is so low that existing instruments cannot detect it. Let's say, for example, that this entire room is the saliva solution of a corona patient," explains Dr. Danieli. "The size of the laser beam is the size of a fist and at low concentrations inside the fist there will be maybe 3-2 fluorescent molecules." Dr. Danieli adds magnetic particles to the solution that stick to the fluorescent molecules. The result: the possibility of concentrating the fluorescent molecules and reducing the error in the measurement.

"Two goals were in front of me at this stage, to simplify the process and in the process also to make its results more accurate. My innovation is based on the use of two electromagnets, magnets that are activated by an electric current. By placing them correctly we were able to create a powerful magnetic field and collect all the thousands of fluorescent molecules in the solution to the narrow laser beam, now the signal strength has been multiplied by several orders of magnitude. But that's not all. So that we don't have to pump the solution, we alternately activate the electromagnets, once right and once left. The molecules then move from side to side, every time they pass through the laser beam they light up and when they leave it they do not light up, this flickering is different from the constant noise of the solution and allows us, without any additional process, to accurately determine whether the patient has been exposed to the corona virus. The high sensitivity of the technology together with the simplicity of its operation allow the development of a small device the size of a home coffee machine capable of quickly detecting very small concentrations of various disease agents. Dr. Danieli points out that in addition to identifying the RNA of the virus, the group is working in collaboration with universities in Europe to identify antibodies that the patients' immune system produces against the virus, thus giving doctors another alternative to definitely identify the virus. While Dr. Danieli develops kits to detect various diseases such as the corona virus, the MagBiosense company develops the equipment based on the technology.

These days, Dr. Danieli is looking for an entrepreneur who will agree to invest in accelerating the development of the kit for detecting the corona virus and introducing it for use in hospitals.