This glowing star inspired glow-in-the-dark COVID-19 testing technology developed by Richard Willson and his team at the University of Houston. [Image courtesy of the University of Houston)
Researchers at the University of Houston are using glow-in-the-dark materials to enhance the sensitivity of rapid COVID-19 home diagnostics.The widely used lateral flow assay provides rapid results for diagnostics such as at-home COVID-19 or pregnancy tests. They also offer low costs and ease of operation. Test results on LFA diagnostics come through in colored lines.
“We are making those lines glow-in-the-dark so that they are more detectable, so the sensitivity of the test is better,” said Richard Willson, who’s leading the University of Houston team.
Willson is the Huffington-Woestemeyer professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UH Drug Discovery Institute and a professor of biochemic…