Yeast dust makes a cheap, fast virus test

Researchers from The University of Queensland have made a dust from baker’s yeast that can detect COVID-19 and could safeguard communities against future pandemics. The powdery ‘nanoprobes’ developed at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) are synthetic yeast fragments which can be deployed in environments such as airports, hospitals, stadiums and sewers to detect COVID-19 biomarkers. Lead researcher and director of the AIBN’s Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine Professor Matt Trau said the yeast nanoprobes can also be integrated into current COVID-19 testing platforms. “Yeast has long been a cheap and abundant ingredient in bread and beer and thanks to its unique chemical properties, it can now be used in diagnostic technologies that rival PCR testing for speed and sensitivity,” Professor Trau said. “We often refer to yeasts as biofactories because they are the oldest industrial microorganisms. “In this case, we are using the same historically inexpensive and highly scalable food production systems to...