Holographic Imaging helps detect virus and antibodies quickly and efficiently: Study

Scientists from the University of New York have devised a new method of detecting viruses and antibodies using holographic imaging. This new method could potentially greatly aid the medical diagnosis by reducing the time it takes to diagnose someone and thereby reducing medical costs as well. The method was devised keeping in mind the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the need to detect coronavirus pathogens and their corresponding antibodies quickly and efficiently.

Method to reduce the risk of misdiagnosis

The new method utilises laser beams to record holograms of their test beads and the entire procedure can be done in under 30 minutes. The new method is extremely accurate and uses physical principles that have not been previously been used for diagnostic testing. This method allows researchers to efficiently detect viruses and antibodies and literally watch them stick to specially prepared test beads. This new method of identifying viruses and antibodies was first published in the journal Soft Matter.

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Grier added that his team can “analyze a dozen beads per second, which means that we can cut the time for a reliable thousand-bead diagnostic test to 20 minutes. And we can measure those changes rapidly, reliably, and inexpensively.” The device that the researchers used to create the holographic video microscopy is called xSight and was created by a New-York based company that Grier himself co-founded. The researchers behind this supposedly groundbreaking new technique believe that it can significantly diminish the chances of misdiagnosis occurring and also speed up the process of treatment thereby also reducing the cost of healthcare.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 38 million people worldwide with the global death toll crossing 1,000,000. The US has reported more than 7.5 million COVID-19 cases and a death toll of over 200,000.

(With ANI Inputs, Image: Pixabay)

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