A new test developed by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can now detect virtually any virus known to affect humans and animals. Called ViroCap, this test can also detect “novel” viruses not yet identified, as long as they share a few genetic characteristics with known viruses.
According to a recent article, the researchers developed the test by condensing one billion viral genetic base pairs to 200 million usable sequences. Then they took a snippet of each sequence, and made those snippets into “probes” that can turn up a genetic match in patient samples.
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