Laboratorios militares de EUA trabajan aceleradamente en el desarrollo de un biosensor que, colocado debajo de la piel, permitir\u00eda detectar virus, incluso antes que los primeros s\u00edntomas empiecen a aparecer. Ese biosensor emitir\u00eda una luz fluorescente cuando el organismo comienza a luchar contra la infecci\u00f3n, generando adem\u00e1s una se\u00f1al que, a trav\u00e9s de un componente electr\u00f3nico, llegar\u00eda simult\u00e1neamente por la web al Sistema de Salud.<\/p>\n
Why are pandemics so hard to stop? Often it\u2019s because the disease moves faster than people can be tested for it. The Defense Department is helping to fund a new study to determine whether an under-the-skin biosensor can help trackers keep up \u2014 by detecting flu-like infections even before their symptoms begin to show. Its maker, Profusa<\/a>, says the sensor is on track to try for FDA approval by early next year.<\/p>\n The sensor has two parts. One is a 3mm string of hydrogel<\/a>, a material whose network of polymer chains is used in some contact lenses and other implants. Inserted under the skin with a syringe, the string includes a specially engineered molecule that\u00a0sends\u00a0a fluorescent signal outside of the body when the body begins to fight an infection. The other part is an electronic component attached to the skin. It sends light through the skin, detects the fluorescent signal\u00a0and generates another signal that the wearer can send to a doctor, website, etc. It\u2019s like a blood lab on the skin that can pick up the body\u2019s response to illness before the presence of other symptoms, like coughing.<\/p>\n The announcement comes as the United States grapples\u00a0with COVID-19<\/a>, a respiratory illness that can present in flu-like symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath. The military is taking a leading role in vaccine research, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday. \u201cOur military research labs are working feverishly around the horn here to try to come up with a vaccine. So we\u2019ll see how that develops over the next couple of months,\u201d Milley said. U.S. troops themselves are also at risk. A U.S. soldier in South Korea became the first U.S. service member to contract the virus, the Wall Street Journal <\/em>reported<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n