Japanese Scientists Develop Fluorescent Masks That Can Detect Corona Virus

Illustration of wearing a mask. (Unsplash/Kay Lau)

JAKARTA - A team of university scientists in western Japan has developed a mask that glows when exposed to ultraviolet light if it contains traces of the coronavirus, using antibodies extracted from ostrich eggs.

The team at Kyoto Prefectural University, led by its president Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, 52, hopes the masks will offer an easy way for users to test whether they have contracted the virus.

With testing continuing to put them into practical use, the team aims to get government approval to sell masks perhaps next year.

Ostriches are capable of producing several different types of antibodies, or proteins that neutralize foreign bodies in the body.

In February last year, the team injected an inactive, non-threatening form of the coronavirus into a female ostrich, successfully extracting large amounts of antibodies from the eggs they laid.

The team then developed a special filter that was placed inside the face mask. The filter can be removed and sprayed with fluorescent dye-containing coronavirus antibodies from ostrich eggs. If there is a virus, the filter will glow when exposed to ultraviolet light.

When the team conducted a 10-day experiment with 32 people infected with the coronavirus, they found that all the masks they wore glowed in UV light, which faded over time and their viral loads dropped.

Tsukamoto's team further aims to expand the experiment to include 150 participants. The university's chancellor found himself also positive for COVID-19, after putting on one of the experimental masks and finding it glowing when examined. He confirmed his status with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

"We can mass-produce antibodies from an ostrich at low cost. In the future, I want to make this an easy test tool that anyone can use," said Tsukamoto as quoted by Kyodo News on December 8.