Researchers at the University of Arizona have created an app for a modified smartphone that is capable of detecting the norovirus. The Norovirus, or stomach flu, is a highly contagious virus that infects nearly 20 million Americans annually. Jeong-Yeol Yoon, and his team, have developed a method of detecting small quantities of the virus in a water solution.
Using the same technology in conjugated antibody beads, Yoon’s team chemically attached norovirus antibodies to fluorescent polystyrene beads in a water solution. A cellulose paper microfluidic chip is then exposed to contaminated water. Both solutions are now combined so that contaminated water particles interact with the fluorescently tagged antibodies. With multiple binding sites, there can be multiple fluorescent tags near each other, producing a detectable signal.
This fluorescent signal is detected by rigging a smartphone to a light microscope with filters to remove noise. With a fluorescent signal indicating the quantity of norovirus in solution, Yoon has developed an ingenious approach to detection that can be read on the phone’s app.