Detecting airborne viruses in a blink of an eye
Until now, there was no real-time airborne virus tracking technology, hindering the understanding of rapid virus change, transmission and associated health impacts. Led by the Ariya' lab, in collaboration with colleagues at McGill Faculty of medicine and U. de Montreal, we developed an AI-Laser technology (called Nano-DIHM) that allowed real-time physicochemical tracking of virus-laden droplets in milliseconds. The detection system was demonstrated to detect active MS2 bacteriophages, inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and RNA fragments, and an MS2 mixture with metallic and organic compounds. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using Nano-DIHM to provide rapid virus detection to improve transmission management in real time. Such a tool is crucial as the next pandemics are expected with climate change, and Nano-DIHM will allowing manage better transmission and save lives. Link is given below: