Smartphone Norovirus Detection

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Single Copy Level Detection of Virus through Particle Counting on Paper Microfluidics Using Smartphone Based Fluorescence Microscope Tech-ID: UA20-057 Invention: University of Arizona inventors have detected norovirus on a microfluidic paper analytic device without using any sample concentration or nucleic acid amplification steps. This technology uses a smartphone-based fluorescence microscope and an image-processing algorithm to isolate the particles aggregated by antibody-antigen binding. This leads to a limit of norovirus detection as low as 1 genome copy/µL in deionized water and 10 genome copies/µL in reclaimed water. Background: Noroviruses are a group of non-enveloped, single-stranded RNA viruses that can cause inflammation of the stomach or intestines. They are human enteric viruses that can be highly infectious upon ingestion of low doses of virions. In principle, norovirus can be detected in water, food, and environmental specimens. However, this current process involves complicated concentration of viruses and/or amplification of the norovirus genome, thus the detection is almost impossible in field settings.