Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators developed the sensor, which integrates specially designed DNA fragments and nanopore sensing, to target and detect infectious viruses in minutes without the need to pre-treat samples. They demonstrated the sensor's power with two key viruses that cause infections worldwide: The human adenovirus and the virus that causes COVID-19.

Yi Lu, a professor emeritus of chemistry, and Benito Marinas, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, co-led the work with University of Illinois Chicago professor Lijun Rong; professor Omar Azzaroni, of the National University of La Plata in Argentina; and María Eugenia Toimil-Molares, of the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany. They reported their findings in the journal Science Advances.

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