How does the biosensor detect coronavirus before symptoms appear

As international laboratories continue to redouble their efforts to develop vaccines against the coronavirus, the scientific world is working in parallel to find new alternatives to contain the spread of the epidemic It has already infected over 136 million people worldwide and killed nearly three million.

In this race to find solutions to a problem that affects everyone, vsNorth American Pentagon scientists have developed a high-tech implant that is placed under the skin and detects if the person in question is infected with COVID-19, before symptoms appear. This new development was carried out by the secret Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US military.

In an interview with the traditional program “60 Minutes”, broadcast on the North American network CBS, the retired colonel Matt Hepburn, an infectious disease doctor in the army, explained how this implant works.

“That little green thing over there, you put it under the skin and what it tells you is that there are chemical reactions inside the body and that signal means you will have symptoms tomorrow. “, revealed the scientist.

This microchip, which is embedded in a tissue-like gel, is designed to continuously analyze the recipient’s blood for the presence of the virus. Once covid-19 is detected, The small device signals the patient to take a quick blood test and confirm the positive result.

When asked if the chip was a “real transmitter”, Hepburn said that “You are like a check engine light”. “We can have this information in three or five minutes. By truncating this time, during diagnosis and treatment, what is done is to stop the infection in its tracks, ”he added.

The sensor consists of two parts. One is a 3mm bead of hydrogel, a material whose polymer chain network is used in some contact lenses and other implants.. Inserted under the skin with a syringe, the thread includes a specially designed molecule that sends a fluorescent signal outside the body when the body begins to fight off an infection. The other part is an electronic component attached to the skin. It sends light through the skin, which detects the fluorescent signal and generates another signal that the user can send to a doctor, website, etc. It’s like a blood lab on the skin that can detect the body’s response to illness before other symptoms, such as coughing..

Realizing that microchips of this type will cause skepticism and concern, especially when developed by a government agency, scientists in the United States have clarified that it is not a device created to track the movements of people, but rather its sole purpose is to test the blood and detect possible infections.

This same skepticism has been seen in many people since the start of the global immunization campaign. Last February, the newspaper The New York Times reported that a third of U.S. troops have refused to receive the coronavirus vaccine, alluding to concerns that it contains a microchip designed to monitor recipients, permanently disables the body’s immune system, or that it it is a form of government control.

For its part, DARPA also unveiled new technology that allows a standard dialysis machine to remove COVID-19 from a patient’s blood, using a custom filter. According to what was explained by the specialists of this government agency, the blood passes through the machine, where it is detoxified, and then it is returned to the body in a continuous flow until the body gets rid of the virus.

The program showed the case of “Patient 16”, the husband of an army soldier, who was on the verge of death due to organ failure and septic shock after being infected. by a coronavirus. While in an intensive care unit, the woman received four days of treatment. “She was released from the vasoactive drugs and her septic shock resolved. We also saw improvements in their markers of inflammation. These are all positive prognostic signs, ”said Dr Gaeta, who confirmed the patient“ made a full recovery within days ”.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the filter for emergency use, and it has so far been used to treat nearly 300 critically ill patients.

DARPA scientists have stressed that this type of investigation is vitally important to preventing outbreaks in crowded military barracks, such as the one that occurred on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in March and April 2020, in which 1,271 crew members tested positive for coronavirus. In addition, more than 250,000 US Department of Defense personnel and their dependents around the world have contracted the virus.

Another Pentagon agency, the Joint Institute of Pathology, meanwhile, studies tissue samples from soldiers and sailors infected with pathogens around the world, like the damaged lung of a recent covid-19 victim. In his laboratories, he even has tissues from patients infected with the Spanish flu a hundred years ago. In 2005, a team from Mount Sinai Hospital and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) successfully recreated the 1918 virus.

The doctor James crowe, a member of this Pentagon institute, found a way to find antibodies in a vial of blood in record time, reducing the period from 6 to 24 months to 78 days. In other words, only two and a half months. This technology he developed was used to make antibodies against covid-19.

He is currently working on how to speed up the actual culture of antibodies, a process that takes three weeks to develop 7,500 doses. “We would start with a blood sample from a survivor, and we would finish it all and give him an injection of the remedy within 60 days.”

The CBS show also featured The Doctor Kayvon Modjarrad, which is trying to create a vaccine against all coronaviruses. “This is not science fiction, but scientific fact. We have the tools, the technology to do it all right now. “

The scientist commented that the goal of his project is to be able to inoculate people with deadly viruses that have not even been identified: “We will be protected against deadly viruses that we have not even seen or imagined.”

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