Ultrafast, on-chip PCR could speed diagnosis during pandemics
Published Date: 5/26/2021
Source: phys.org
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has been the gold standard for diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the PCR portion of the test requires bulky, expensive machines and takes about an hour to complete, making it difficult to quickly diagnose someone at a testing site. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed a plasmofluidic chip that can perform PCR in only about eight minutes, which could speed diagnosis during current and future pandemics.