AI Nanopores Transform Infectious Disease Control
Since the year 2000, new infectious diseases have emerged around the world every few years. To combat such emerging infections, three elements are essential: vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostic tests. However, only a very limited number of infectious diseases currently have all three in place.
The development of vaccines and therapeutics requires more than a decade and enormous financial investment. As a result, by the time they are completed, the outbreak has often already subsided, making this approach highly risky for companies. Therefore, from a practical standpoint, identifying infected individuals and outbreak regions through testing is critical to preventing the spread of infection.
However, if diagnostic methods must be developed from scratch every time a new infectious disease emerges, rapid response becomes extremely difficult. What is needed instead is a flexible “testing platform” that can be adapted to a wide range of infectious diseases with only minimal modifications.
We are developing a new viral testing technology called AI Nanopore, which integrates AI with nanopore technology. Using this approach, we established a COVID-19 testing method that requires only simple pretreatment—filtering saliva—and achieves over 90% accuracy with just five minutes of measurement. Moreover, AI Nanopore can be readily adapted to detect viral variants simply by updating the training data used by the AI.
We are currently applying this technology to the detection of other viruses, such as influenza. By developing virus testing methods that are simple, rapid, and highly accurate, we aim to minimize the impact of emerging infectious diseases on human health, society, and the economy.
