News
New project of Lars Renner and Elisha Krieg funded by EKFZ
The Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EKFZ)
will support the project „VirChip – Point-of-Care/Need isothermal RNA/DNA detection“ over the next two years.
During the current COVID-19 pandemic the need for reliable and rapid testing manifests itself as a fundamental requirement to adequately cope with any worldwide health crisis resulting from infectious diseases. Another zoonotic epidemic is just around the corner. Detecting the threat and isolating contagious patients requires effective, thoughtfully organized, well-equipped, and importantly, rapid testing facilities. Here, we propose to develop an innovative diagnostic Point-of-Care/Need tool: VirChip.
The goal of VirChip is to offer a versatile, flexible platform for parallel viral and bacterial pathogen identification and suitable to detect pathogenic viruses e.g. Influenza A/B, corona viruses such as SARS-CoV2, or respiratory syncytial virus as well as antibiotic multi-resistant bacterial strains like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a single microfluidic chip equipped with a fully integrated manifold and detection system. We will provide a powerful diagnostic tool for quick and precise detection of viral or bacterial pathogens in order to prevent the spread of contagious disease and hospital-acquired infections.
01.07.2020