New Lab Kit and Cell Phone App Transform Smartphone into COVID-19/Flu Virus Detection Test

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 01 Feb 2022

Image: smaRT-LAMP (Photo courtesy of Ryan Allen and Peter Allen/Second Bay Studios)

In a potential game changer for COVID-19 pandemic control efforts, a new cell phone app and lab kit have transformed a smartphone into a COVID-19/flu detection system.

The detection system developed by a team of research scientists at UC Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) and Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) is among the most rapid, sensitive, affordable and scalable tests known - and can be readily adapted for other pathogens with pandemic potential including deadly variants of COVID and flu. It also provides a platform for inexpensive home-based testing. The system succeeded in achieving rapid and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19, COVID variants, and flu viruses. The app uses a smartphone’s camera to measure a chemical reaction and determines a diagnosis in 25 minutes - at a fraction of the cost of current diagnostic methods. The app and methodology are free and openly available to all.

The process, termed smaRT-LAMP, is simple and straightforward. A small volume of the patient’s saliva is collected and analyzed by the smartphone app using the phone’s camera and the diagnostic kit. No additional specialty materials are required. The lab kit can be produced for less than USD 100, and it requires little more than a smartphone, a hot plate and LED lights. The screening tests can be run for less than USD 7 each versus USD 10 to USD 20 per rapid antigen test and USD 100 to USD 150 per PCR test.

PCR tests are the gold standard due to their sensitivity and accuracy, but they are slow, expensive and not portable. LAMP tests match the sensitivity and accuracy of PCR - at a fraction of the time and cost. Further, LAMP occurs at constant temperature, which is suitable for point-of-care and home-based testing. The simple lab test can detect and differentiate COVID-19 and the flu, which show very similar respiratory disease symptoms and can lead to misdiagnosis.

“As new COVID variants emerge globally, testing and detection remain essential to pandemic control efforts,” said lead author Michael Mahan of UC Santa Barbara. “Nearly half the world’s population has a smartphone, and we believe that this holds exciting potential to provide fair and equal access to precision diagnostic medicine.”

Related Links:
UC Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital