Toaster Sized Machine Detects COVID-19
Reporter: Irina Robu, PhD
DnaNudge, a small UK-based DNA testing company designed a toaster sized machine that can detect COVID-19 in 90 min without lab analysis. The machine invented by Christofer Toumazou, professor at Imperial College was designed to aid people tailor their diet based on heredity, but changed the design due to the pandemic. The machine needs a nose swab or some saliva to detect traces of coronavirus. It can even spot other diseases such as the flu and a common virus infection called Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). It will also notify the operator if a proper sample has been taken or if a test needs to be retaken.
Currently, the UK National Health Service ordered 5,000 of the machines, as well as cartridges to start testing coronavirus patients, as part of a $211 million contract. They are hoping that the machine designed by DNANudge states that can prove helpful in triaging potential COVID patients.
SOURCE
https://futurism.com/neoscope/machine-covid-90-minutes?mc_eid=8eae667eea
This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.