Researchers developing wearable COVID-19 test strip - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland

SAN DIEGO (KSWB) – Researchers at UC San Diego are experimenting with new wearable test strips that change color if they detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a person’s breath or saliva.

The strips can be affixed to any mask and are designed to detect “protein-cleaving molecules” produced from an infection of the virus, the university said in a news release Thursday.

“In many ways, masks are the perfect ‘wearable’ sensor for our current world,” said Jokerst, professor of nanoengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

The strips — developed with $1.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health — are ideal for higher risk settings such as homeless shelters or prisons to find infections earlier and more often to reduce potential spread, Jokerst said.

Researchers are working with the UC San Diego School of Medicine to test out the strips on COVID-19 positive samples.