Taiwanese researchers have designed the world’s first microchip platform capable of detecting SARS-CoV-2 within three minutes, the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) said yesterday, adding that the field-effect transistor biosensor (Bio-FET) is expected to hit markets as soon as next month.
The chip, which was in December granted emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration, resulted from joint research conducted by Molsentech (矽基分子), Academia Sinica, the NARL’s Taiwan Instrument Research Institute and Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital.
Yesterday, the NARL told a news conference hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology that the research was funded by ministry grants, while the hospital conducted clinical trials of the chip in which 142 of its patients participated.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The chip offers a three-minute rapid screening and a 20-minute complete screening, hospital vice dean Chen Yao-sheng (陳垚生) said.
Biosensors on the chip modify the electric charge passing through the chip if it detects nucleic acid characteristic of the virus that causes COVID-19, Molsentech CEO Chu Chia-jung (褚家容) added.
While quantifying a cycle threshold value and screening more accurately, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing takes at least one-and-a-half hours, the NARL said.
Antigen and antibody rapid screening tests take 15 minutes, it said, adding that antigen screenings often deliver false positives or negatives.
Antibody screening can only detect SARS-CoV-2 in the latter stages of infection, it added.
The chip is so sensitive that it does not require amplification to detect the nucleic acid, Chen said, adding that the system can even detect the virus in its incubation stage.
The chip would greatly shorten the time required to run a nucleic acid test, Chu said, adding that the system has a positivity rate of 95 percent on a nasopharyngeal sample.
“Our goal is for the system to conduct tests using just saliva samples,” she added.
The chip gives people more precise screening results in less time and at a lower cost per person of NT$3,000, she said.
The firm is offering a discount of 40 to 50 percent to all hospitals, she said, adding that it is applying for EUAs in the US and Japan.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS