Next Generation of Virus Biosensors

Test Bed Vision:

“To create the next generation of biosensors to control the spread of animal virus disease”

Infectious disease in livestock is a very serious concern for animal-based food production. An outbreak could have enormous repercussions across the industry. Not just in terms of costs but in terms of the viability of a secure and reliable food supply. Early diagnosis of animal viral disease can greatly assist with containing the disease before there is an outbreak.

Detection is often based on the presence of clinical symptoms of disease, plus blood tests to confirm the presence of antibodies. Such blood tests are performed in specialised laboratories, and in many cases can take too long. This test bed will design a universal platform to be used simultaneously for harvesting, pre-concentration and detection of a wide range of viruses.

Virus detection will be performed using specialised gold-coated magnetic nanoparticles contained with our propriety nanochannel technology. The nano particles will be synthesiess and functionalised to co-display virus-specific antibodies and a redox probe to selectively capture targeted viruses. The platform will be cost-effective and capable of rapid detection of low abundance viral species to accelerate the detection of infectious diseases among livestock and reduce the occurrence of disease outbreak.

This test bed is led by Nico Voelcker, and Helmut Thissen from the Health and Biosecurity and Manufacturing Business Units at CSIRO.