Our Faculty of Science developed a practical Covid-19 diagnostic platform based on color change.
Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University (MSKU) provides great support to the fight against the pandemic through both the protective measures it has taken and the clinical researches, R&D activities and national/international scientific studies it has carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A group of researchers in the Chemistry Department of Faculty of Science of our university were working on the identification of the Covid-19 virus. As a result of these studies, under the leadership of Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Ülkü Anık, a practical Covid-19 diagnostic platform based on color change was developed. The team including Ph.D. student Yudum Tepeli and Dr. Lecturer Burak Ekrem Çitil from our Faculty of Medicine, was supported by MSKU Scientific Research Projects Coordinatorship. When this system, which responds in 20 minutes at the latest, was adapted to real Covid-19 samples, highly accurate results were obtained. Prof. Dr. Ülkü Anık stated that the diagnostic platform they developed has the capacity to detect current variants, adding, “Unlike its counterparts in the world, this platform can be converted into a diagnostic kit, which is not based on antigen-antibody interaction. It can also detect currently existing variants.
We applied for a patent for the diagnostic platform based on color change. At the same time, this study was published in a high-impact journal. Negotiations with companies continue in order to convert the developed diagnostic platform into a diagnostic kit”.