Dual COVID-19 and Influenza Virus Detection via Antibody-Functionalized Graphene Field-Effect Transistors

The advent of pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has highlighted the requirement of sensor devices capable of carrying out rapid differential diagnosis of various viruses that may manifest similar physiological symptoms but demand tailored treatment plan. Annually, the world undergoes multiple cycles of seasonal Flu infection which now poses a bigger challenge, exacerbated by the pandemic. In this work, we demonstrate liquid-gated graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) based rapid biosensing device capable of making differential diagnosis between Influenza and COVID-19 viruses. The device consists of four onboard GFETs arranged in a quadruple architecture, where each quarter is functionalized with specific antibody to utilize the antibody-antigen reaction on graphene’s surface to indicate the presence of either Influenza or COVID-19. The graphene bio-sensors were successfully tested against a range of concentrations of both the viruses, indicating extremely high sensitivity. Unlike the standard polymerase chain reaction-based testing kits which have a turn-around time of at least three hours, graphene bio-sensors offer a response time of about 10 seconds, hence enabling rapid diagnosis. The antibody functionalized graphene bio-sensor is a suitable platform for the rapid diagnosis of existing and future infectious diseases.