Detecting COVID-19 Antibodies In 30 Minutes

A group of researchers at the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Ciencia Inc. and the New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center have developed a COVID-19 antibody test that takes only 30 minutes. The work has been posted on medRxiv titled "Multiplexed Detection and Quantification of Human Antibody Response to COVID-19 Infection Using a Plasmon Enhanced Biosensor Platform."

This new method is able to detect antibodies against a number of different COVID antigens, and can readily discriminate between people who were previously infected vs. never infected. Blood serum yields the best accuracy, but the group also had very good success with dried blood spots which only require a finger stick and small droplet of blood. Another benefit of the dried blood spot testing is that these samples are quite stable, they can be shipped in the mail without any refrigeration. Next steps include high throughput testing and further validation with additional samples.

The fluorescent plasmonic (GC-FP) system that was used is in the laboratory of Dr. Nathaniel Cady, RNA Institute Associate Faculty Member, Empire Innovation Professor of Nanobioscience and Executive Director of the SUNY Applied Materials Research Institute. “The system is primed and ready to go for similar experiments,” says Dr. Cady.