Spain’s Covid-19 Fight is Coming Up with Laser Detection Box to Spot Virus

SPANISH medical researchers are looking at the use of laser technology to see if people have the coronavirus.

The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) has been running six laboratory demonstrations in a long-term project to see if lasers can detect cancer cases and other bacterial infections.

Those tests have been promising and scientists believe that once prototypes have been successfully put through their paces, they hope that the new laser units can be distributed to scan for the coronavirus within a year.

Professor Laura Lechuga, from the ICN2 said: “Our detector box is user-friendly with a minimal amount of operating knowledge needed. It could be widely used by doctors and nurses to test patients.”

The concept is all done by photonics, which focuses on the properties of light.

According to the scientists, their system is allegedly more reliable than the currently used finger-prick testing kit for Covid-19, which has caused some disagreement over the reliability of the test results.

The other big advantage is that the coronavirus can be detected straight away.

“With thousands of deaths around the world, we are in urgent need of a rapid new testing kit that is accurate, highly sensitive, non-invasive and cheap to produce,” said Laura Lechuga.

“We are currently combining all of the necessary gear into in a portable 25x15x25 cm box with a tablet control,” she added.

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Written by

Alex Trelinski

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