▲ Professor Jungwook Lee
A domestic research team has developed a diagnostic technology that can identify the COVID-19 mutant virus 'Omicron' in 20 minutes.
Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) announced that Professor Jung-wook Lee's team from the Department of Chemical Engineering will release the technology for discriminating the mutation of Corona 19 microns through the research team's website (https://sbl.postech.ac.kr) from the evening of the 10th.
So far, it is known that the technology to distinguish COVID-19 mutations takes 3-5 days.
The research team used molecular diagnostics technology rather than sequencing that reads existing DNA or RNA sequences.
Unlike conventional technology, which can process up to 96 samples per instrument, more than 125 samples can be processed in 30 minutes, allowing more than 250 samples to be processed per hour.
Moreover, it does not require specialized equipment, so it has the advantage of being able to quickly and easily make a diagnostic kit and analyze it.
Using the sequencing method, the material cost per sample is about 480,000 won and the equipment cost required for sample processing per unit time is about 50 million won.
On the other hand, the new detection method costs about 5,000 won for material and 200,000 won for equipment, which can reduce costs.
The research team said that since they were able to create a diagnostic method within 4 days of starting the development of Omicron mutation response technology, they can respond quickly even if a new mutation or virus occurs in the future.
To overcome COVID-19, we decided to disclose the technology through our website.
Professor Lee, who led the study, said, "I hope that the release of this technology will help accelerate the return to daily life even a little bit. I did.
(Photo=Provided by Pohang University of Science and Technology, Yonhap News)