Plasmonic Biosensor Augmented by a Genetic Algorithm for Ultra-Rapid, Label-Free, and Multi-Functional Detection of COVID-19

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading globally due to its super contagiousness, and the pandemic caused by it has caused serious damage to the health and social economy of all countries in the world. However, conventional diagnostic methods are not conducive to large-scale screening and early identification of infected persons due to their long detection time. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a new COVID-19 test method that can deliver results in real time and on-site. In this work, we develop a fast, ultra-sensitive, and multi-functional plasmonic biosensor based on surface-enhanced infrared absorption for COVID-19 on-site diagnosis. The genetic algorithm intelligent program is utilized to automatically design and quickly optimize the sensing device to enhance the sensing performance. As a result, the quantitative detection of COVID-19 with an ultra-high sensitivity (1.66%/nm), a wide detection range, and a diverse measurement environment (gas/liquid) is achieved. In addition, the unique infrared fingerprint recognition characteristics of the sensor also make it an ideal choice for mutant virus screening. This work can not only provide a powerful diagnostic tool for the ultra-rapid, label-free, and multi-functional detection of COVID-19 but also help gain new insights into the field of label-free and ultrasensitive biosensing.

Plasmonic nanosensors for point-of-care biomarker detection

“…Li et al. [ 206 ] developed a plasmonic biosensor based on surface-enhanced infrared absorption that can deliver results in real time and on-site. A genetic algorithm intelligent program was employed to facilitate automation of the design process with optimal sensing performance.…”

Rapid diagnosis of COVID-19vianano-biosensor-implemented biomedical utilization: a systematic review

“…61 Li's group has reported a rapid, extremely sensitive, and multi-faceted plasmonic nano-biosensor based on surfaceenhanced infrared absorption for on-spot COVID-19 detection. 62 An intelligent genetic algorithm program has been utilized for the spontaneous design and rapid optimization of the sensor to improve the overall detection performance. The sensor is highly sensitive for detecting COVID-19 quantitatively (1.66%/nm).…”

Review on Metasurfaces: An Alternative Approach to Advanced Devices and Instruments

“…For example, in order to realize fast diagnosis of COVID-19, IR metasurface is developed as an alternative approach to achieve high-efficiency patient screening. COVID-19 is induced by a new coronavirus consisting of single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome and four structural proteins (spike surface glycoprotein (S), small envelope protein (E), matrix protein (M), and nucleocapsid protein (N)) [120]. Each of them has different resonance frequencies.…”