World economies have gradually open up, easing restrictions to persuade people to start living with COVID-19 in a new norm. Workforce started returning to office; people are eating out more & starts to commute. While the community generally understand the need to sustain the economy by opening up, most are still wary of contacting COVID-19 and hope for effective ways to detect the presence of the virus to stay clear of it.

A Singapore company, Neuome Peptides Pte Ltd from Singapore, uses peptide-based science and tech to develop accurate, efficient and economic diagnostic solutions in different areas including cardiovascular diseases and COVID-19 detection. Following their recent breakthrough in getting ICMR approval for their high sensitivity ART kit using saliva, they launch a product using the same science that can detect COVID-19 viral particles in the air within 500 square feet.

Neuome’s ‘TruCov-Air’ is a plug-and-play device that is suited for both public and private environment. With an unobtrusive size of 9cm x12cm x9cm, it can be mounted on wall or as a standalone device to detect COVID-19 virus in every conceivable environment. TruCov-Air is designed as a proactive device that is sensitive enough to detect viral particles as low as 200, to give people around places such as hospitals, conference rooms, airplanes, public or private transportation, offices, classrooms etc. an extra level of safety confidence.

While the description of TruCov-Air might sound simple, the science & tech behind it is complex. The team at Neuome have to first identify specific peptides that can mimic ACE2 receptor and bind with better efficiency to Spike S1 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) than ACE2 receptor itself. They conjugate this peptide to small gold nanoparticles which when bind to Spike S1 subunit on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 can change color from red to purple due to steric hindrance similar to aggregation of gold nanoparticles. This proprietary formula is then used across their multiple diagnostic solutions through different system design for different purpose.

Average aerosol particles exhaled from a person typically travel in the air through a distance and tend to linger in the air for up to 17 min (10µm). TruCov-Air is designed with a main chamber through which air from the surrounding is drawn in by an exhaust fan mounted on one end. Air enters perpendicular to the exhaust and takes a turn along the curved surface grazing the proprietary peptide-coated membrane exposed through a small window in a cartridge-design, attached to the device as shown conceptually below:

Peptide membrane

With the fan constantly running, air enters the chamber. A dust filter blocks out most dust particles that have typical pore size > 10 micron and only allow air with viral particles smaller than 10 micron, like COVID-19, to enter the passage to react with the membrane which will result in a shift of the wavelength from

the red to violet in the NIR region. The sensor mounted at the window constantly scans for this shift. If the shift is detected, within minutes and with a high level of accuracy, the device will light up red and/or sound an alarm to alert presence of COVID-19 virus.

TruCov Air is a compact device, powered by a standard 12V adaptor and consumes about 5 watts of power only. It should be placed centrally in an enclosed space, on desks and counters where there is significant people traffic. One only need to replace the cartridge with peptide-coated membrane tape, a Hepa filter & dust filter every 90-days usage.

With such product, people can feel more comfortable, knowing that personal, public, and business surroundings are as safe as possible.