{"id":149246,"date":"2025-10-09T10:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//?p=149246"},"modified":"2025-10-09T10:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:04:08","slug":"ucf-researchers-developing-easy-to-use-viral-biosensor-test-giving-patients-more-accurate-immediate-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//ucf-researchers-developing-easy-to-use-viral-biosensor-test-giving-patients-more-accurate-immediate-results/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246//","title":{"rendered":"麻豆原创 Researchers Developing Easy-to-Use Viral Biosensor Test /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u2014 Giving Patients More Accurate, Immediate Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
For most diseases, early detection leads to better patient outcomes./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n
That/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u2019s why infectious disease experts and chemists at the 麻豆原创 College of Medicine and College of Sciences were recently awarded a $537,619 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a low cost, accurate test that detects Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV at the same time./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n The researchers are working to repurpose an existing electrochemical biosensor and apply that technology to quickly identify the viruses at the RNA level and quantify viral loads in resource-limited settings./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n There is a worldwide need for such a test, as more than 300 million people live with the two forms of hepatitis and more than 40 million live with HIV, World Health Organization data shows. Access to faster and easy-to-use testing can reduce the spread of both viruses and help patients catch hepatitis earlier, reducing their risks of developing liver failure, cirrhosis and liver cancer./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n Simultaneous testing also has potential to remove barriers to patient care and help doctors better refine treatment plans./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cIt/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u2019s very important to detect those viruses in the same sample because those viruses share the same route of transmission and it increases the chance that the same person may get multiple viruses,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d says Yulia Gerasimova, an associate professor of chemistry working on this project. to know how to tailor the treatment for patients depending on if they have a co-infection or not./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n Current diagnostics for both viruses require a blood test and analysis by a clinic or hospital lab. For that reason, testing is difficult in remote and resource-limited areas of the world, where getting results can take months./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n During that time, undiagnosed patients get sicker and the disease may spread./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cI think the goal is to have something that’s accessible worldwide /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u2014 regardless of the environment,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d says College of Medicine researcher Daniel Ram, an assistant professor of infectious disease who is working on the project. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cHaving the capacity to detect multiple viruses at once really has potential to benefit everyone./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n Ram recalls growing up in Guyana where his mother was the director of a national clinic that could not process such patient samples on site./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cIn order to quantify viruses and patient samples, we would have to ship the samples out to Miami or sometimes Trinidad and Tobago,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d he says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cDuring shipping, those samples degraded and the possibility for failure is high. In the meantime, doctors didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u2019t know how to best treat the patients./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n The researchers hope to reshape patient care by creating a more accessible and affordable diagnostic that can be used at low resource settings, says Karin Chumbimuni-Torres associate professor of chemistry and project lead./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n Instead of the current blood test that measures the body/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u2019s immune response to each virus and the distinct viral load of each virus, the 麻豆原创 researchers want to repurpose an existing electrochemical biosensor and apply that technology to quickly identify both viruses at the RNA level. They envision that collected samples, such as blood, can be screened with the sensor./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n Chumbimuni-Torres developed similar technology to detect dengue fever and the Zika virus, and her preliminary positive results allowed her to receive the NIH grant for hepatitis and HIV./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n The HIV virus often mutates so the 麻豆原创 scientists programed their sensor to detect any strain of the disease./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cThis is key,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d Chumbimuni-Torres says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cHIV can mutate a lot so we made a technique that can detect any of the mutations./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n Because the biosensors conduct genetic testing on the viruses, the scientists can target all the different genetic sequences of both viruses./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201cWe want to quantify the virus so doctors can know how to treat patients,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/u201d Chumbimuni-Torres says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/nQuicker Results, Healthier Patients/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n
The Science Behind New Tests/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/149246/n