New York Worried whether your cough sore throat and congestion is Covid19 or flu A new ultrathin sensor may help you understand in just 10 seconds Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin used a singleatomthick nanomaterial to build a device that can simultaneously detect the presence of the viruses that cause Covid19 and the flu at much lower levels and much more quickly than conventional tests for eitherThey presented their results at the ongoing spring meeting of the American Chemical Society ACS in the US The symptoms of both flu and Covid19 overlap considerably making it difficult to distinguish between them said Deji Akinwande from the varsity When both of these viruses are circulating together as they did earlier this winter it would be immensely useful to have a sensor that can simultaneously detect whether you have Covid flu none of the above or both he saidAkinwande stated that the device he and colleagues are developing could be modified to test for other infections as well The team constructed the Covid19 and flu sensor using graphene a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice pattern Its extreme thinness renders graphene highly sensitive to any electrical changes in its environmentAlso read Vaccination for infants Do s and Don tsTo build the infection sensor the researchers had to make graphene respond to the presence of viral protein To do so they looked to the immune system which produces antibodies that are finetuned to recognise and latch onto particular pathogens The researchers then linked antibodies against SARSCoV2 the virus that causes Covid19 and against the flu virus to graphene When a sample from an infected person is placed on the sensor these antibodies bind to their target proteins prompting a change in the electrical currentThey tested the sensor using proteins from these active flu or SARSCoV2 viruses delivered in fluid intended to resemble saliva Their results indicated that not only could the sensor detect the presence of the proteins it could do so when they were present at extremely low quantities This sensitivity suggested the sensor could be used for detecting the much more sparse viral particles found in breath Akinwande saidThe sensor also worked quickly returning results within about 10 seconds of dropping in a sample he said By comparison conventional Covid19 tests can take minutes or hours depending on the type and a dual Covid and flu test recently authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration takes about half an hour to produce results Akinwande and his team are now working to improve its performance further including by expanding the slate of viruses it can detect They are developing a sensor designed to test for SARSCoV2 variants such as Omicron and Delta IANSThis story has not been edited by ETV Bharat and is autogenerated from a syndicated feed