New Chip to Determine Flu Virus

Tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta have indicated that a newly developed Flu Chip can determine the genetic makeup and types and subtypes of the virus in about 11 hours as compared to current methods that take around four days.

According to Professor Kathy Rowlen of the chemistry and biochemistry department of the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder, "This new technology should help provide better global influenza surveillance by making it easier for more laboratories to swiftly identify severe flu strains, which inturn may aid health officials to stem potential flu epidemics and even pandemics."

Rowlen is working on the Chip development with CU chemistry Professor Robert Kuchta and a team of postdoctoral researchers and students.

The chip may be configured to test for all known flu virus strains as well as new variants. It was evaluated for three primary subtypes of flu in its most recent test: avian flu strain H5N1 and two of the most common human flu types of recent winters, H1N1 and H3N2. The chip proved more than 90% accurate. It will be tested again by the CDC with standard flu culturing methods to measure its accuracy and speed.

The development team is attempting to cut down on the 11-hour virus identification process. Rowlen feels that within a few years, the technology could be sized to fit into a hand-held portable device, the size of a cell phone, and taken into remote areas around the world to test for flu strains.

The Flu Chip team is working with CU's Technology Transfer Office and plans to make Flu Chip genetic sequences freely available to interested researchers.