Pangolins a potential intermediate host of novel coronavirus: New Study
Hong Kong researchers invent fast coronavirus detection device
Guangzhou: The genome sequence of the novel coronavirus strain separated from pangolins was 99 per cent identical to that from infected people, indicating pangolins may be an intermediate host of the virus, a study has found.
The study was led by the South China Agricultural University. According to Liu Yahong, president of the university, the research team analysed more than 1000 metagenome samples of wild animals and found pangolins as the most likely intermediate host.
Molecular biological detection revealed that the positive rate of Betacoronavirus in pangolins was 70 per cent. Researchers further isolated the virus and observed its structure with an electron microscope.
They found that the genome sequence of the coronavirus strain was 99 per cent identical to those in infected people.
Tokyo: Researchers of a Hong Kong university have invented a fast portable detection device for novel coronavirus that reduces the whole procedure from sampling to testing to merely 40 minutes.
With the latest microfluidic chip technology, the device heats up testing samples by 30 degrees centigrade per second, improving significantly from the current four to five degrees centigrade per second, according to a press release issued on Thursday from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The speed of temperature change is the key that determines the efficiency of the detection, the faster the temperature rises, the shorter a device can come up with the test result, the researchers said.
The invention was jointly made by a research team of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology led by Professor Wen Weijia and a Shenzhen-based biotechnology startup company, co-founded by Wen and his doctoral graduate Gao Yibo.
The researchers came up with the testing kit within a week after obtaining the new coronavirus sequence on January 20.
The equipment set has been in use by disease control and prevention centers in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong province, and two more sets were being delivered to the centre of central China’s Hubei province.