Robert Strassl, Head of the Department of Clinical Virology at the Clinical Institute of Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, and his interdisciplinary team consisting of the AIT and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences have received a research grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for the development of a new electronic biosensor for the determination of SARS-CoV-2 variants and infectivity. For the AIT, the Tulln Competence Unit BioSensor Technologies with Jakob Andersson and Patrik Aspermaier is on board as part of this project called COSENZA.
The aim of this multidisciplinary project is to develop a novel electronic biosensor for the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2. The underlying technology should also enable immediate determination of known virus variants and could represent an early warning system for new variants. Viruses that are capable of replication, and thus potentially infectious, are to be detected in order to directly determine the infectiousness of patients.
This new method for SARS-CoV-2 detection, as well as variant and infectivity determination, could contribute to the containment of the pandemic and help to optimise the use of resources for patient isolation in the healthcare system. In addition, the new technique can easily be adapted later to detect other viruses and their infectivity.
More information about the Competence Unit can be found here.
