SARS-CoV-2 Quantum Sensor Based on Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

The development of highly sensitive and rapid biosensing tools targeted to the highly contagious virus SARS-CoV-2 is critical to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantum sensors can play an important role, thanks to their superior sensitivity and fast improvements in recent years. Here we propose a molecular transducer designed for nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds, translating the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA into an unambiguous magnetic noise signal that can be optically read out. We evaluate the performance of the hybrid sensor, including its sensitivity and false negative rate, and compare it to widespread diagnostic methods. The proposed method is fast and promises to reach a sensitivity down to a few hundreds of RNA copies with false negative rate less than 1%. The proposed hybrid sensor can be further implemented with different solid-state defects and substrates, generalized to diagnose other RNA viruses, and integrated with CRISPR technology

Protein-directed synthesis of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles and their magnetic properties investigation

In this study, maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles were produced using gelatin protein as an effective mediator. Size, shape, surface morphology and magnetic properties of the prepared γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, TEM, SEM and VSM data. The effects of furnace temperature and time of heating together with the amount of gelatin on the produced gelatin-Fe3O4 nanocomposite were examined to prove the fundamental effect of gelatin; both as a capping agent in the nanoscale synthesis and as the director of the spinel γ-Fe2O3 synthesis among possible Fe 2O3 crystalline structures