OREANDA-NEWS. The biochip for detecting coronavirus, which is being developed at the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University "LETI", will be able to diagnose in 5-10 minutes, Tatiana Zimina, a leading researcher at the Engineering Center for Microtechnology and Diagnostics of ETU, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, told RIA Novosti.

Earlier, Rospotrebnadzor announced the development of a biochip for testing for coronavirus, noting that another development in this area is being conducted by LETI, where for a number of years the direction of research and development of multimodal biosensors for the rapid determination of biomarkers, viruses and microorganisms, including biomarker diagnostics of acute infarction has been developing myocardium, stress, rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus using peptides.

As Zimina said, work on the creation of diagnostic methods based on peptide biochips has been carried out at ETU since 2005. In January 2020, work began on the study of digital twins to the S-protein (spike) of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus; by March 2020, two peptides complementary to the S-protein were developed by computer modeling.

According to her, it is assumed that by the end of 2021 a sample of the biochip will be ready. She clarified that the support of Rospotrebnadzor and the allocation of funding, as well as ensuring cooperation with organizations that have permission to work with coronavirus cultures for testing, can significantly accelerate the introduction of biochips into clinical practice.

"The biochip we are developing will allow diagnostics within 5-10 minutes," Zimina noted.