Taiwanese researchers use lasers to weigh viruses
Method could improve identification of deadly pathogens; scientists use ion trap to bombard virus particles with laser light; a chip measures resultant oscillation to determine mass; technique limited to 50 nanometers or larger
Deadly viruses may feel like boxers and wrestlers soon due to a new technology that can weigh them with such extraordinary precision as to identify them. Developed by researchers at Taiwan’s Institute of Atomic and Molecular Science, the technique involves confining a virus inside an ion trap and bombarding it with lasers. The light reflects off of the virus toward a light sensitive chip, which uses the exact light pattern to determine the level of oscillation of the virus, which in turn reveals its mass.
Professor Huan-Cheng Chang and his team tested the technique with the recombinant human adenovirus type 5, the grouper iridovirus, and the vaccinia virus. The researchers found they could determine the mass of each virus with a margin of error of just 1 percent — a strong showing compared to such methods asmass spectroscopy, which has an error margin of 15 percent or more. One caveat: The laser scattering technique will not work for viruses smaller than 50 nanometers. Nevertheless, it may still be “possible to determine the mass of smaller particles indirectly, by measuring the electromagnetic field amplitude of the scattered light instead of the intensity,” New Scientist reported.
Chang’s research will be published in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition (vol 45, p 8131).
-read more in Will Knight’s New Scientist report
