The test, developed by the team of Nobel Researcher for Chemistry, recognizes the presence of the new coronavirus in just 5 minutes
2020 will remain in history as the year of SARS-Cov-2 and the pandemic. The scientific community is committing all its human, intellectual and economic resources to try a vaccine that can counter the spread of the virus. While waiting for the vaccine, the only possibilities are to slow down the spread by operating the appropriate health care and prevention. Tracking positive subjects is possible thanks to the nose-pharyngeal swab, but the analysis of samples is laborious and long, providing the result after many hours.
Researcher Jennifer Doudna and her team have developed a new rapid test that uses CRISPR to detect traces of SARS-CoV-2 within minutes, without the use of special reagents or machinery. The researcher is among the top experts in the field and has just won the Nobel Prize 2020 for Chemistry, together with her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier. The new rapid test uses agents that detect the virus even at low concentrations. The sensitivity allows the test to be reliable and also provides the precise amount of virus in the sample.
The procedure was described in a preprint article, without verification and confirmation from the scientific community. The signature in the Nobel Doudna article should be a guarantee of quality but researchers are waiting for external confirmation of the validity of the method. The first results bode well and, if the test will be recognized as valid, it could bring a big change in the method of patient tracking. Shortening the diagnosis time and multiplying the tested cases will provide an immediate and thorough picture of the state of the spread, allowing the recognition of outbreaks and dangerous situations in time.