PATHPOD: a portable point of care device for the rapid detection of COVID-19

A video-interview with a senior researcher from the CORONADX project explains what PATHPOD is and discusses the advantages, use and perspectives of this device.

How can a platform for the detection of pathogens in foods become a device for the detection of SARS-CoV-2?

In this interview, Vinayaka Aaydha Chidambara, a senior researcher at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) tells us how, by adapting an existing technique to a new target, his research group developed PATHPOD and how the CORONADX project originated at the beginning of the pandemic.

PATHPOD is a lab-on-a-chip system for the rapid detection of COVID-19. The system uses the LAMP technology (short for loop-mediated isothermal amplification) to amplify the viral genome.

Its accuracy is comparable to that of RT-PCR, the gold standard for COVID-19 testing, with the advantage of being faster.

In fact, unlike a molecular test, PATHPOD is able to detect SARS-COV-2 in 30-45 minutes.

Other advantages are related to the fact that it is a portable device, that it is easy to use, that it requires minimal training and ultimately that, being a point-of-care device, there is no need to ship the sample to a central laboratory.

Discover more in the video-interview here

Provided by iCube Programme