A former student of Allahabad University (AU) claims to have developed a biosensor that can detect COVID-19 infection through sweat samples.

Amit Dubey, 34, who is working as a senior scientist at Quanta Calculus, Greater Noida, claims that he has developed the world's first specific, reliable ultra-small gold nanoclusters for biomedical and biosensing applications to detect COVID.

His work can lead to a new age of effective and cheaper testing kits capable of detecting COVID-19 using just the sweat of an individual instead of nasal or throat swabs that kits of today need.

Sharing his research, findings of which have been recently published in Luminescence: The Journal of Biological and Chemical Luminescence, a US journal published by Wiley, Dubey said the biosensors would be a one-step identification or sensing technique.

Ultra-small gold nanoclusters, with diameters less than 2 nm, are attracting increasing attention due to their unique size-dependent physiochemical properties which include strong luminescence and excellent biocompatibility.

"I hope this research can lead to a new generation of low-cost biosensors," the scientist said.