20-minute COVID-19 blood test developed by Australia Monash University

MELBOURNE: A blood test developed by Australia's Monash University could detect positive COVID-19 cases in about 20 minutes. Based on commonly used blood typing infrastructure, researchers at the Melbourne-based university developed a simple agglutination assay to identify antibodies generated in response to COVID-19, Xinhua news agency reported.

The test requires 25 microliters of plasma from blood samples and positive COVID-19 cases will cause agglutination or clustering of the red blood cells, which is easily identifiable to the naked eye.

"Detection of antibodies in patient plasma or serum involves pipetting a mixture of reagent red blood cells and antibody-containing serum or plasma onto a gel card containing separation media, incubating the card for 5-15 minutes, and using a centrifuge to separate agglutinated cells from free cells," senior lecturer in Chemical Engineering Simon Corrie said in a statement on Monday. (IANS)

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