UC Santa Barbara Team Builds Mobile App and Lab Kit to Detect COVID-19 and Flu
By Sam Brusco, Associate Editor | 02.01.22
Can be adapted for other pathogens with pandemic potential.
University of California (UC) Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital researchers developed a smartphone app and lab kit to spot COVID-19 variants and flu viruses. The kit can turn a smartphone into a COVID-19/flu detection tool, providing a platform for cost-effective home testing.
It could also be tuned for other pathogens with pandemic potential.
“As new COVID variants emerge globally, testing and detection remain essential to pandemic control efforts,” UC Santa Barbara researcher and lead study author Michael Mahan told the press. “Nearly half the world’s population has a smartphone, and we believe that this holds exciting potential to provide fair and equal access to precision diagnostic medicine.”
The custom-built application was developed for Android’s operating system. After opening the app, users are given a step-by-step tutorial before running samples. The system uses a smartphone camera and diagnostic kit to measure a small saliva sample and generates a diagnosis in 25 minutes.
The technique, known as smaRT-LAMP, doesn’t need additional specialty materials.
“SmaRT-LAMP can detect COVID-19 and can be readily modified to detect novel CoV-2 variants and other pathogens with pandemic potential, including influenza,” commented UC Santa Barbara professor Charles Samuel.
Funding was provided by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The Army Research Laboratory of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command also provided funds.
It could also be tuned for other pathogens with pandemic potential.
“As new COVID variants emerge globally, testing and detection remain essential to pandemic control efforts,” UC Santa Barbara researcher and lead study author Michael Mahan told the press. “Nearly half the world’s population has a smartphone, and we believe that this holds exciting potential to provide fair and equal access to precision diagnostic medicine.”
The custom-built application was developed for Android’s operating system. After opening the app, users are given a step-by-step tutorial before running samples. The system uses a smartphone camera and diagnostic kit to measure a small saliva sample and generates a diagnosis in 25 minutes.
The technique, known as smaRT-LAMP, doesn’t need additional specialty materials.
“SmaRT-LAMP can detect COVID-19 and can be readily modified to detect novel CoV-2 variants and other pathogens with pandemic potential, including influenza,” commented UC Santa Barbara professor Charles Samuel.
Funding was provided by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The Army Research Laboratory of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command also provided funds.
