Researcher wins backing to develop COVID detector

Friday, June 26, 2020

Carolyn Ren, a professor at Waterloo Engineering, has won $265,000 in federal backing to develop a palm-sized device capable of detecting COVID-19 infection within 30 minutes. Pharmacy professor Emmanuel Ho, along with Keith Fowke of the University of Manitoba, are supporting the project.

The device is expected to greatly expand testing and control spread of the virus through use at drive-through sites and other community locations. To support the development of the device, Ho's research team is exploring how to use gold nanoparticles to detect or bind to the virus so that the device's microwave sensor can produce the 'positive' or 'negative' signal.

“This tragedy could be prevented from happening or its impact could be largely minimized if rapid, massive-scale testing can be performed at the community level without the need of highly trained professionals and expensive equipment,” the researchers wrote in their proposal.

Read the full story on the Faculty of Engineering webpage.