A silver lining from the global pandemic, PhD students from Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering enjoyed a “golden opportunity” to participate in world-first COVID-19 research.
The students made a vital contribution to a scientific breakthrough that allowed positive COVID-19 tests using blood samples to be carried out in just 20 minutes, with the results published in the journal ACS (American Chemical Society) Sensors. The team developed a simple test based on commonly used blood-typing tools; if COVID-19 is in the blood, the red cells agglutinate, or cluster.
“For a person who is passionate about research in the infectious disease space – my PhD was on nanomedicine for bloodstream infections – this seemed like a golden opportunity. How often do you get a chance to be a part of something groundbreaking?” student Vidhishri Kesarwani said.
“While Australia and other parts of the world were effectively in lockdown, we geared up in the lab to get this out. Undoubtedly, the most exhilarating aspect of this research was when the assay [analysis] gave a clear distinction between COVID-positive and healthy human blood samples. Our efforts had come to fruition.”
