FLUFET

Infectious zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans are on the rise, and the risk of a new pandemic is higher now than ever before. Future health models need to consider the close connection between human and animal health, and new technologies capable of continuously monitor places where the risk of pathogens transmission is higher (shared by animals and humans) are urgently needed to prevent the human, socio-political and economic cost from pandemics.
Continuous monitoring and harmonized data collection of animal farms are required by the European Parliament. However, current methods are not suitable for an in-situ, continuous and automatic detection, so today only a limited number of specific pathogens are monitored. FLUFET will be the first automatized sensor able of continuously detecting a broad spectrum of viral targets, and with the unprecedent capability of detecting unknown viruses. This sensor will be based on graphene Field Effect Transistors (gFETs). FLUFET will detect infectious zoonotic threats before they spread to humans and create potential outbreaks, opening the door for a pandemic’s prevention continuum. It will bring the possibility to incorporate the long-distance external factors heavily affecting human health at worldwide level. A spin-out belonging to GRAPH, called ATTN, will commercialize FLUFET in the future. In agreement participant universities and RTOs. FLUFET brings interesting opportunities for Health and pandemics experts and managers, Policymakers and regulatory/standardization bodies, Animal farmers and their associations, Precision livestock farming solution providers, Investors and
researchers in the multiple disciplines involved in the consortium. FLUFET requires an interdisciplinary consortium including partners from computational biophysics, graphene technology, nanotechnology, sensing, microfluidics, virology, surface engineering and sensor design and electronics.