Pentagon studies development of implantable biosensor to detect SARS-CoV-2

Matt Hepburn, researcher specializing in Infectious diseases and a retired Army Colonel who works at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, revealed that the government agency is developing a biosensor that would detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus by injecting it into people’s skin.

“It gets under the skin and that tells you that there are chemical reactions in the body, and that signal means that you are going to have symptoms tomorrow.“, He explained, in an interview with the prestigious American television show”60 minutes“From the signal CBS.

“It’s like a “check engine” light, “Hepburn added, noting that those with the biosensor” would receive the signal and then they would self-administer a blood test and test it on the spot. “added the MD from Duke University.

“We can have this information in three to five minutesHepburn went on to add:As you shorten this time frame, diagnose and treat, you stop the infection in its tracks.“.

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..

Hepburn is exploring the building blocks needed to deal with pandemic threats, after retiring from 23 years of service in the U.S. military as an infectious disease physician, Matt Hepburn is currently leading an effort for the Department of Defense called “Enabling Technologies”. , which is rapidly developing new vaccines and treatments against the future challenges of this rapidly spreading disease demand.

The scientist also clarified that DARPA has developed a filter to remove the virus from the blood using a dialysis machine, which the FDA has approved and has already been used in 300 patients.

The report also showed how Pentagon has hundreds of tissue samples from soldiers and sailors infected with pathogens around the world, including the Spanish Flu of 1918 which killed millions of people around the world.

Another Pentagon researcher, Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases subdivision of the Walter Reed Army Research Institute also noted that The US military is developing a unique vaccine against COVID, and commented, “This is not science fiction, this is scientific fact.”.

“We have the tools, we have the technology, to do all of this right now,” he said, explaining that the goal is to vaccinate people against potentially fatal viruses that have not yet appeared.

“We will be protected against killer viruses that we have neither seen nor even imagined,” Modjarrad said.

According to the specialist, “our idea is not only to make a vaccine against this virus, we are trying to make a vaccine for the whole family of coronaviruses. It is the heart of our vaccine. We design the ´splike‘so that we can bind it to this protein. “

If his concept, which is currently in the midst of a clinical trial, proves to be successful, Dr Modjarrad says that in five years one vaccine could beat all coronaviruses – that means a lot of colds, the deadly strain that’s causing this pandemic.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known by its acronym DARPA, from its original name in English Advanced Defense Projects Agency, is an entity of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for military use. It was created in 1958 as a technological consequence of the Cold War and of which the foundations of ARPANET emerged, the network that gave birth to the Internet.

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