Advanced Nanophotonic Biosensor Platforms for COVID-19 fast diagnostics at the Point-of-need: CoNVat Project
DIPC Seminars
- Speaker
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Laura M. Lechuga, ICN2, Spain
- When
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2020/07/17
14:00 - Place
- Online seminar, Donostia International Physics Center
- Add to calendar
-
iCal
The dramatic spread of COVID19 pandemics has evidenced the urgent need of
novel diagnostic tools for the rapid testing and screening of the population.
In fact, reliable and early diagnostics of COVID-19 has become one of the
major challenges in the correct management of the Pandemic. Current diagnostic
techniques rely on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which provide the
required sensitivity and specificity. However, its relatively long time-to-
result and the need of specialized laboratories, delays overly the massive
detection. Rapid tests (antigen and serological tests) are a good alternative,
but they face important limitations in terms of sensitivity and reliability.
Strong efforts are being pursuing at worldwide to surpass this bottleneck by
offering reliable, fast and user-friendly diagnostics tests than can be
employed at the point-of-need. Biosensing technology is one of the most well
prepared to tackle this challenging goal.
CoNVat project is one of the first projects funded by the H2020 European Union
Framework program to fight against COVID-19. Main objective is to deliver a
Point-of-Care (POC) Nanophotonics Biosensor platform capable to provide an
accurate and fast SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus detection (less than 30 minutes),
without requiring complex equipment and directly from the human sample.
CoNVat employs an innovative design of an evanescent wave nanophotonic sensor
based on silicon photonics interferometric technology and microfluidics lab-
on-chip integration. This novel nanosensor exhibits an unprecedented
sensitivity while operating under a label-free scheme (detection limit of 10-8
RIU for bulk sensing and below 0.01 pg.mm2 for surface sensing). It is also
prone to miniaturization and multiplexing as is fabricated in compact silicon
nitride waveguides contained on chips.
Link to the seminar: