An Automated Rapid Test for Viral Nanoparticles Based on Spatiotemporal Deep Learning

Abstract

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of medical testing for an early detection of regional disease hot spots. The PAMONO sensor (Plasmon-Assisted Microscopy of Nano-Objects) can detect virus-like particles. It utilizes the surface plasmon resonance of particles attaching to an antibody coated gold plate to generate a stream of noisy images containing characteristic spatiotemporal signals. These signals are then analyzed via a deep neural network based architecture which targets a parameter-free usage on-site. It is able to detect individual (virus) particles within ten seconds and to reach a count exactness of higher than 80% in a minute.