Can you imagine wearing a facemask in public that triggers an alarm like “COVID-19 detected, hurry up into isolation!”? Well, maybe it won’t happen exactly like that, but what engineers from MIT and Harvard invented might interest you.
SciTechDaily writes about a new invention that aims to detect the coronavirus relatively fast: a new facemask capable of diagnosing the wearer with COVID in less than 90 minutes. That means that after you finish watching a football game, you’ll get your result immediately. The miracle facemasks are embedded with small and disposable sensors that can even detect other viruses.
The sensors could also be implemented into cloathing
The sensors for detecting the coronavirus could also be inserted into lab coats, which could offer a new way of monitoring the exposure of health care workers to various diseases. But don’t worry, wearing the new facemask won’t mean that others will immediately see if you’re suffering from the coronavirus. The masks will display the result in the inner layers, and the sensors will be activated by the user.
Credit for the image: Felice Frankel and MIT News Office
James Collins, the lead author of the study and the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science from MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering, declared as cited by SciTechDaily:
We’ve demonstrated that we can freeze-dry a broad range of synthetic biology sensors to detect viral or bacterial nucleic acids, as well as toxic chemicals, including nerve toxins. We envision that this platform could enable next-generation wearable biosensors for first responders, health care personnel, and military personnel.
According to worldometers.info, a total of over 182.7 million infections with COVID occurred worldwide, and more than 3.9 million people died because of the virus.
The new study paper was published in Nature Biotechnology.
