Two SUNY Polytechnic Institute faculty members — Empire Innovation Professor of Nanobioscience Nate Cady and Associate Professor Scott Tenenbaum, head of Nanobioscience — have been awarded funding by the State University of New York to fabricate a more complex novel coronavirus diagnostic test that can provide additional data to arm medical workers with the information they need to improve care.

The test will not only detect a patient’s infection with the virus but it will also provide information about the patient’s immune response and disease status. This could potentially help doctors and medical staff better treat those who might require greater care, according to a release from SUNY Poly.

Cady and Tenenbaum are working in partnership with Ciencia Inc., based in East Hartford, Connecticut, and the Wadsworth Center’s Klemen Strle.

The unique presentation of COVID-19 in patients, such as its long incubation period and its particularly greater impact on those with underlying health conditions, makes the research highly relevant, the release said.

A diagnostic that provides faster detection of COVID-19, with more information about patients’ health status, including, for example, whether they are clear of the infection, and if they have generated antibodies against the virus, could lead to greater understanding of the disease and which patients may need more intensive treatment sooner.

By measuring the level of antibodies in a patient’s blood, the same test could provide an estimate of how long it has been since they were infected and what stage of recovery they may be experiencing.