Innovative antibody tests in pipeline - OC Covid-19

April 10, 2020 By Anna Lynn Sptizer and Lori Brandt The human toll is far and away the most serious consequence of COVID-19, but the economy has suffered a blow as well. The key to getting people back to work could lie in determining who might be immune to the virus.

Two professors at the University of California Irvine’s School of Engineering are working to find low-cost, innovative antibody tests for Covid-19. Peter Burke, a professor of electrical engineering, is investigating the feasibility of using short DNA sequences instead of proteins to detect antibodies, which would be less expensive to manufacture. One of his colleagues, Marc Madou is proposing a CD system that would provide low-cost, high-throughput semi-automated immunoassay processing. Together, these two professors are working to “integrate coronavirus antigen arrays onto CD-based fluidic platforms, which could lead to a quick, inexpensive microarray digital imaging test.”