Fighting COVID-19: Integrated Micro- and Nanosystems for Viral Infection Diagnostics

Summary

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) highlights the importance of rapid and sensitive diagnostics of viral infection that enables the efficient tracing of cases and the implementation of public health measures for disease containment. The immediate actions from both academia and industry have led to the development of many COVID-19 diagnostic systems that have secured fast-track regulatory approvals and have been serving our healthcare frontlines since the early stage of the pandemic. On diagnostic technologies, many of these clinically validated systems have significantly benefited from the recent advances in micro- and nanotechnologies in terms of platform design, analytical method, and system integration and miniaturization. The continued development of new diagnostic platforms integrating micro- and nanocomponents will address some of the shortcomings we have witnessed in the existing COVID-19 diagnostic systems. This Perspective reviews the previous and ongoing research efforts on developing integrated micro- and nanosystems for nucleic acid-based virus detection, and highlights promising technologies that could provide better solutions for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases. With the summary and outlook of this rapidly evolving research field, we hope to inspire more research and development activities to better prepare our society for future public health crises.

Graphical Abstract

Progress and Potential

The development of integrated molecular diagnostic platforms based on state-of-the-art micro- and nanotechnologies has greatly improved both laboratory-based and point-of-care testing of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Enabled by recent advances in molecular biology, analytical chemistry, microfluidics, nanotechnology, and biomedical instrumentation, these integrated micro- and nanosystems hold significant potential to provide better solutions for diagnosis of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases in epidemic and pandemic situations. By summarizing the state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic systems and highlighting the promising technologies that need further development, this Perspective intends to spark further research and development activities in this critical research area.

Abstract

Integrated molecular diagnostic systems for viral infection testing have greatly facilitated our ongoing combat with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This Perspective summarizes the recent advances in developing integrated micro- and nanosystems for nucleic acid-based testing of viral infectious diseases and highlights the future trends with the hope of inspiring more research and development activities.