Taiwanese researchers have designed the world’s first microchip platform capable of detecting SARS-CoV-2 within three minutes, the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) said yesterday, adding that the field-effect transistor biosensor (Bio-FET) is expected to hit markets as soon as next month.
The chip, which was in December granted emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration, resulted from joint research conducted by Molsentech (矽基分子), Academia Sinica, the NARL’s Taiwan Instrument Research Institute and Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital.
Yesterday, the NARL told a news conference hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology that the research was funded by ministry grants, while the hospital conducted clinical trials of the chip in which 142 of its patients participated.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The chip offers a three-minute rapid screening and a 20-minute complete screening, hospital vice dean Chen Yao-sheng (陳垚生) said.
Biosensors on the chip modify the electric charge passing through the chip if it detects nucleic acid characteristic of the virus that causes COVID-19, Molsentech CEO Chu Chia-jung (褚家容) added.
While quantifying a cycle threshold value and screening more accurately, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing takes at least one-and-a-half hours, the NARL said.
Antigen and antibody rapid screening tests take 15 minutes, it said, adding that antigen screenings often deliver false positives or negatives.
Antibody screening can only detect SARS-CoV-2 in the latter stages of infection, it added.
The chip is so sensitive that it does not require amplification to detect the nucleic acid, Chen said, adding that the system can even detect the virus in its incubation stage.
The chip would greatly shorten the time required to run a nucleic acid test, Chu said, adding that the system has a positivity rate of 95 percent on a nasopharyngeal sample.
“Our goal is for the system to conduct tests using just saliva samples,” she added.
The chip gives people more precise screening results in less time and at a lower cost per person of NT$3,000, she said.
The firm is offering a discount of 40 to 50 percent to all hospitals, she said, adding that it is applying for EUAs in the US and Japan.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary