Singapore, May 18 -- MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, has received a grant from the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) COVID-19 Research fund for the acceleration of research and development of rapid paper-based serological and diagnostic tests for COVID-19. The 1-year grant is part of NMRC's support for COVID-19 related research and will focus on developing rapid tests based on protein detection that will overcome challenges and bottlenecks faced by existing diagnostic tests.

An important approach in the multi-pronged strategy to fight the pandemic is the ability to rapidly detect and treat infected individuals to prevent exponential spreading. Presymptomatic and asymptomati...