Industry: Healthcare Region: Bulgaria Deal price: $1 million Deal Method: equity financing
Brief introduction:
The academy is now seeking partners.
Details:
Project overview
The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has developed a method for the manufacture of a new viral sensor based on electromagnetic echo effect (EMEE), which can be used to detect a variety of viruses in human body fluids, skin surfaces and air. Emee-based sensors will be developed to combat a variety of diseases, including the Novel Coronavirus, thereby reducing public health risks.
The working principle of
Identifying the virus in the early stages of infection can help control the disease more effectively. A new approach to creating a virus sensor uses the electromagnetic echo effect (EMEE), an important feature of which is that the signal from EMEE is highly dependent on the state of the object being radiated, so that the reactions can be controlled even if they are not visible to the human eye or other devices.
A laser beam is used to illuminate the solid, which is then coated with a thin layer of banded virus (corresponding to approximately 18 x 2mm in length and width). One end of this layer is illuminated by a laser beam, which generates a corresponding signal from the EMEE. A small drop of serum containing antibodies is added to the other end to avoid accidentally interfering with the laser beam, which could lead to an incorrect signal. Eventually specific antibody-antigen interactions occur that alter the measured signal.
Figure: EmEe-based virus sensor: S-solid matrix; L - contact layer; I -- Solid-liquid interface, generating signals; E -- electrode.
The measured fluid EMEE signal is formed at the fluid-solid interface where the irradiated solid surface must be in contact with the fluid that may be present with the virus, and reagents that can react specifically to the controlled virus species may also be added.
Since the electronic properties of the solid surface are directly affected by the adjacent fluid layers, it can be speculated that a change in photoexcitation in such a system would induce a measurable EMEE signal due to the presence of a specific virus. All other things being equal, the presence of this virus can be detected. This will significantly affect the properties of the illuminated solid-liquid interface and therefore the signal from the sensing structure. So EMEE can be used to develop new technologies to detect the presence of viruses.