Wood-based Sensor for Post-COVID Lung Health Monitoring (Indo-Aus-US collaboration)

Identifying the Issue

• Number of reports has suggested symptoms of dyspnea, an indication of impaired lung function with reduced diffusion capacity post SARS-CoV-2 infection
• Need for a more reliable and accurate oxygen monitoring device that can complement pulse oximetry in the remote management of COVID-19 recovered individuals

Objective of the Research

• Monitoring of O2 uptake in SARS-CoV-2 recovered participants to assess their lung function in comparison with healthy individuals
• Designing of a low-cost, eco-friendly, high sensitive, plasmonics based sensor

Who should read this?

COVID-19 researchers, COVID-19 recovered patients, Pulmonologists, COVID Care health experts, Chemical sensor & nanotechnology scientists.

Solution

The trilateral international collaboration between the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL), India, Macquarie University, Australia (MACQ) and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), United States of America began in the year 2017. Over the years, the collaboration has grown stronger with multiple collaborative projects and publications between these institutions.

In one such successful research collaboration, a new research study is now published in ACS Sensors. The technology developed is:

• A wood-microfluidics chip & plasmon-coupling based biodegradable and eco-friendly O2 sensor with ultrafast response time (~0.2 sec) and high sensitivity
• This is suggestive that SARS-CoV-2 recovered participants had comparatively lower oxygen uptake than healthy participants
• While this clinical data is preliminary in nature, this unique study presents novel insights into an under researched problem that is of paramount significance given the larger health implications of this ongoing pandemic and the nascent understanding of the post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2

Key Features and Benefits

• Next-gen breath sensors that will help achieve low-cost lung health diagnostic devices
• This technology will help in understanding the impact of COVID-19 on lung health through non-invasive mode of evaluation
• Use of novel, biodegradable wood chips for microfluidics will help save environment from plastic-based one-time use microfluidic chips

Impact

• First time 27-fold phosphorescence emission enhancement using surface plasmon-coupled emission platform
• Use of novel and reusable Au(III) complexes having fluorescence and phosphorescence emission for designing ratiometric O2 sensor
• Highly potential technology for post-COVID lung health monitoring

Team

• STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning: Bebeto Rai, Dr. Venkatesh Srinivasan Dr. Kalathur Mohan Ganesh, Dr. Naga Sai Visweswar Kambhampati, Prof. Carani B Sanjeevi and Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy
• MQ Photonics Research Centre, MQ Sustainable Research Centre, Macquarie University: Dr. Robert Malmberg and Dr. Koushik Venkatesan.
• Center for Advanced Sensor Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County: Dr. Abhay Andar, Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy and Prof. Govind Rao

Paper Published in: ACS Sensors

Title: Surface Plasmon-Coupled Dual Emission Platform for Ultrafast Oxygen Monitoring after SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Read Paper Here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.1c01665