New graphene biosensor can detect SARS-CoV-2 in under a minute

Korean researchers have developed a graphene-based field-effect transistor-based biosensor that detects SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swabs from patients with COVID-19, in less than one minute.

Current diagnostic tests for COVID-19 take at least 3 hours, so the team wanted to develop a faster test that could analyze patient samples directly from a tube of buffer containing the swabs, without any sample preparation steps.

The team based their test on a field-effect transistor using a sheet of graphene with high electronic conductivity. Without any sample preparation, the sensor could discriminate between samples from sick and healthy patients. The new test was about 2-4 times less sensitive than RT-PCR, but different materials could be explored to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, the researchers say.