Researchers at Purdue University have developed a miniature device sensitive enough to detect a single virus particle. The device is tiny cantilever, a diving board-like beam of silicon that naturally vibrates at a specific frequency. When a virus particle weighing about one-trillionth as much as a grain of rice lands on the cantilever, it vibrates at a different frequency. The work, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is aimed at developing advanced sensors capable of detecting airborne viruses, bacteria, and other contaminants. Such sensors will have applications in areas including environmental-health monitoring in hospitals and homeland security. The next step will be to coat a cantilever with the antibodies for a specific virus. Only those virus particles would stick to the device, making it possible to create detectors sensitive to specific pathogens.
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:00 AM
