Ping Wang, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, is also seeking to fill the urgent need for rapid and more reliable COVID-19 testing. Wang’s lab has developed a rapid antigen test that can detect small loads of SARS-CoV-2 with sensitivity comparable to that of the “gold-standard” PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test.
The technology works in concert with a smartphone camera to photograph and measure the size and number of miniature, gas-filled viral detection bubbles—called microbubbles—in a chemical reaction using patient samples rapidly collected via a nasal swab.
