How do viral test kits work?
In: Biology
A technique called qPCR. You use an enzyme called Reverse transcriptase to convert viral RNA into DNA. Then followed by another enzyme called DNA polymerase to clone it multiple times.
Mix that with fluorescent DNA primers (short glowing chunks) that are used by the enzyme to build the target DNA, and you can count how much viral DNA there is based on how much fluorescence is given off under UV light.
There are other techniques but this is the easiest and most common.
Latest Answers