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A small study published yesterday in Clinical Microbiology and Infection found live SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in one nose-throat swab and two saliva specimens of five infected hospital patients in Korea 11 to 15 days after symptom onset. Researchers collected nose-throat swabs, saliva, urine, and stool samples from the patients hospitalized from Feb 25 to Mar 5 on days 8, 11, 13, 15, and 30 after study enrollment. They performed quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA and cell culture to detect viable virus. No live virus—only viral RNA—was isolated on cell culture from five urine, two saliva, four nose-throat, and three fecal specimens. (7/23)

Imagine inhaling a sensor that could monitor lung disease patients’ response to therapy, emitting a signal when they breathe out. Like a breathalyzer that recognizes alcohol, such a device could sniff out compounds released only by specific illnesses to gauge how well treatment is working. Biomedical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a synthetic biosensor using specialized nanoparticles to detect and then report the presence of molecules indicating bacterial pneumonia or the genetic disease alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. (Cooney, 7/24)