A UCF team is working on an affordable, accessible test to detect hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV all at the same time. Currently, a blood test and analysis by a clinic or lab for each of the viruses is needed, a difficult “ask” in remote and low-resource regions, where the nearest such facility may be far away. The team aims to repurpose an existing electrochemical biosensor to identify the viruses at the RNA level and quantify viral loads in these resource-limited settings.
“I think the goal is to have something that’s accessible worldwide – regardless of the environment,” says researcher Daniel Ram. “Having the capacity to detect multiple viruses at once really has potential to benefit everyone.” Because the biosensors conduct genetic testing on the viruses, the scientists can target all the different genetic sequences of both viruses, which is especially important since HIV mutates so often.
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