MSGID: 1:317/3 64080f66   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Enhancing at-home COVID tests with glow-in-the dark materials    
    Results read on smartphone    
      
     Date:   
         March 7, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Houston   
     Summary:   
         Researchers are using glow-in-the-dark materials to enhance and   
         improve rapid COVID-19 home tests.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Researchers at the University of Houston are using glow-in-the-dark   
   materials to enhance and improve rapid COVID-19 home tests. If you've   
   taken an at-home COVID-19 or pregnancy test, then you've taken what is   
   scientifically called a lateral flow assay (LFA) test, a diagnostic   
   tool widely used because of its rapid results, low cost and ease of   
   operation. When you read test results, you see colored lines.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   "We are making those lines glow-in-the-dark so that they are more   
   detectable, so the sensitivity of the test is better," said Richard   
   Willson, Huffington- Woestemeyer Professor of chemical and biomolecular   
   engineering and professor of biochemical and biophysical sciences, who   
   previously created a COVID smartphone-based app and test kit based on   
   the technology underlying home pregnancy tests.   
      
   The first idea for glow-in-the-dark technology sprang from a star pasted   
   on the ceiling of Willson's young daughter's bedroom. One night while he   
   was putting her to sleep, he peered at the glow-in-the-dark star and his   
   mind began to wander, applying its principles to science. Within days   
   Willson and his team of students and postdocs was creating a test with   
   glowing nanoparticles made of phosphors, which would make the particles   
   even more detectable and the tests more accurate. Two of the students   
   became the founders of Luminostics (now called Clip Health), a spinoff   
   from the Willson lab).   
      
   Now in the Willson lab, the next generation is developing.   
      
   "In this new development, there are two tricks. First, we use enzymes,   
   proteins that catalyze reactions, to drive reactions that emit light,   
   like a firefly.   
      
   Second, we attached those light-emitting enzymes onto harmless virus   
   particles, along with antibodies that bind to COVID proteins," reports   
   Willson in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal Analyst.   
      
   The reason these steps are useful is that one antibody on a virus can   
   bind to one COVID target on the test strip and bring along with it many   
   light-emitting enzymes. So, the team gets more light for each target, thus   
   needing fewer targets to see the light, making the test more sensitive.   
      
   And while you might be able to read the results with your eye in a very   
   dark room, the Willson team created a little plastic box to exclude   
   light and let a smartphone camera do the reading.   
      
   "This is more reproducible and probably more sensitive, and with   
   smartphones you can communicate the results to databases and things   
   like that," said the paper's corresponding author Katerina Kourentzi,   
   University of Houston research associate professor of chemical and   
   biomolecular engineering. Jacinta Conrad, Frank M. Tiller Associate   
   Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, also from the William   
   A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the   
   University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, is on team. Others   
   from UH include the first author of the paper Maede Chabi, Binh Vu,   
   Kristen Brosamer, Maxwell Smith and Dimple Chavan.   
      
   Willson adds the sensitivity is really excellent, better than essentially   
   any commercial tests, making the technology useful in an array of   
   medical arenas.   
      
   "This technology can be used for detecting all kinds of other things,   
   including flu and HIV, but also Ebola and biodefense agents, and   
   maybe toxins and environmental contaminants and pesticides in food,"   
   said Willson.   
      
   So truly, the sky -- and stars -- are the limit.   
      
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   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Houston. Original   
   written by Laurie Fickman. Note: Content may be edited for style and   
   length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Maede Chabi, Binh Vu, Kristen Brosamer, Maxwell Smith, Dimple   
      Chavan,   
         Jacinta C. Conrad, Richard C. Willson, Katerina   
         Kourentzi. Smartphone- read phage lateral flow assay for   
         point-of-care detection of infection.   
      
         The Analyst, 2023; 148 (4): 839 DOI: 10.1039/D2AN01499H   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230307174326.htm   
      
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