Newly funded: A handheld testing option for COVID-19

A team of researchers led by Maxim Cheeran, MVSc, PhD, and Jianping Wang, PhD, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Science and Engineering, are developing point-of-care diagnostic tests for COVID-19 that physicians could use at an office visit. This biosensing device would use magnetic particle spectroscopy and giant magnetic resistance technology to detect changes in magnetic response when the virus in the sample binds to the detection reagent. This accurate and highly sensitive technology has been miniaturized into a handheld device that can be easily used at a doctor's office, which will help make testing more widely available to physicians, while reducing the time and expertise it takes to do a test. This project is funded by the UMN COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant program. Several prototypes of the handheld device are expected to be completed by the end of April, at which point researchers will begin test validation.