SensNews April 2020

9 Sensor100 2020 Prototype graphene biosensor detects coronavirus in less than a minute A global effort is underway to roll out coronavirus testing kits as fast as possible to better control the ongoing pandemic. Now, a team in South Korea has posted a study to ACS Nano reporting the development of a biosensor test that can detect Covid-19 in less than a minute. The biosensor can detect the virus from swabs taken from the nasopharynx, an area at the back of the nasal cavity that connects to the pharynx. Most tests developed for the virus so far rely on a technique called real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).This amplifies coronavirus RNA from patient swabs so that tiny amounts can be detected. This method typically takes at least three hours, but the South Korean team, which included Edmond Changkyun Park and Seung Il Kim, devel- oped a new test based on a field-effect transistor made from a sheet of graphene with high electronic conductivity. SiliconRepublic 21 April Osang Healthcare wins US nod for Covid-19 test kit Osang Healthcare said it has won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for emergency use of the test kit for the new coronavirus, which was the first for a Kore- an firm. The FDA said on Saturday it issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Osang’s product, GeneFinder COVID-19 Plus RealAmp Kit. GeneFinder uses a molec- ular diagnostic method to check Covid-19 infection using real-time reverse transcrip- tion-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).The test kit detects three types of target genes – E gene, RdRP gene, and N Gene. Korean Biomedical Review 20 April