Ultrafast, on-chip PCR could speed diagnosis during
pandemics

Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) has been the gold standard for diagnosis during the
COVID-19 pandemic. However, the PCR portion of the test requires
bulky, expensive machines and takes about an hour to complete,
making it difficult to quickly diagnose someone at a testing site.
Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed a
plasmofluidic chip that can perform PCR in only about eight
minutes, which could speed diagnosis during current and future
pandemics.