Yiqing Environment's Integrated Intelligent Online Detection System for Environmental Viruses Enables Rapid On-site SARS-CoV-2 Screening

2019The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of the year has posed significant challenges to global public health.

Currently, the research focus of most companies worldwide is skewed more toward developing SARS-CoV-2 testing reagents and equipment for human use, making environmental SARS-CoV-2 detection appear somewhat “niche” in comparison. However, environmental SARS-CoV-2 detection holds significant importance, playing a crucial role in effective epidemic early warning, prevention, control, and transmission interruption.

Conventional environmental virus detection is constrained by factors such as sample concentration, purity, and detection technology, making it difficult to obtain real-time results on-site. Moreover, the process imposes stringent requirements on laboratory personnel, personal protective equipment (PPE), and supporting instrumentation. Consequently, rapid detection of viruses in environmental samples has become a critical bottleneck in COVID-19 prevention and control efforts. It represents a new focal point for technological breakthroughs among many diagnostic equipment manufacturers and is a core area of expertise and competitive advantage for Suzhou Yiqing Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yiqing Environmental”).

Yiqing Environment was established in 2019 as a high-tech enterprise in the environmental equipment sector, incubated by the contaminated site remediation R&D team of the Tsinghua Suzhou Environmental Innovation Research Institute. Its core business activities include the development and sales of technologies and equipment for detecting environmental pollutants and biological hazards, as well as risk assessment for water environments and contaminated sites. The company’s flagship products are the “Rapid Detection and Risk Source Tracing Equipment for Environmental Pollutants” and the “Online Rapid Pathogen Detection System.”

Yiqing Environment has consistently conducted R&D efforts targeting the market pain points and technical bottlenecks in the fields of environmental pollution and pathogen detection, developing innovative and practical commercial testing equipment.

Yiqing Environment has successfully developed a rapid online detection device for SARS-CoV-2, achieving fully automated, one-stop processing from environmental sample collection to analysis. This innovation effectively addresses the challenges associated with existing environmental SARS-CoV-2 detection technologies, such as operational complexity, prolonged turnaround time, and low accuracy, thereby meeting the national biosafety prevention and control system’s demand for specialized equipment under normalized epidemic prevention and control conditions.

The deep-rooted connection between Dr. Zhang Dayi, founder of Yiqing Environment, and Tsinghua University is evident in the company’s name. The registered corporate name is Suzhou Yiqing Environmental Technology Co., Ltd.—where “Yi” signifies soaring ascent, and “Qing” refers to Tsinghua.

Why Would a Tsinghua University Professor Bring Their Research Achievements into the Wave of Entrepreneurship?

Addressing this issue, Dr. Zhang Dayi stated, “During my time studying and working at Tsinghua University, the institution consistently emphasized that both faculty and students should strive to ‘reach for the sky while standing firmly on the ground.’ By ‘reaching for the sky,’ we mean pursuing cutting-edge basic technology R&D; by ‘standing firmly on the ground,’ we refer to grounding our efforts in practical application and translation that align with major national strategic needs.”

Dr. Zhang Dayi earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in Environmental Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University. After a decade of advanced study in the United Kingdom, he resolutely returned to his alma mater, Tsinghua University, to serve as an Associate Research Fellow, with the goal of applying cutting-edge detection technologies to practical applications.

For Zhang Dayi, entrepreneurship is primarily about translating R&D outcomes into practical applications and expanding her academic career—leveraging her technical expertise to genuinely meet market needs and contribute to the overall development of the industry.

Currently, Yiqing Environment has assembled a technical team comprising three PhDs and over ten Master’s degree holders, with expertise spanning environmental science, analytical chemistry, medicine, and other fields, demonstrating a high degree of professional complementarity.

Compared with traditional large-scale nucleic acid extraction and detection workstations, Yiqing Environment’s rapid online viral detection device has been significantly reduced in size, appearing to be only as large as a suitcase. Moreover,Enables fully automated, one-stop operation for environmental samples, covering the entire workflow from detection pre-processing to analytical testing., facilitating transportation and portability, and enabling easy use in on-site environments such as vehicles, public transit hubs, schools, and shopping malls.

This means that during the viral testing process, operators can be exempted from cumbersome sample handling procedures.On one hand, it significantly reduces the risk of viral exposure for operators during the pandemic; on the other hand, it shortens the sample testing time from 12 hours to just half an hour.

How does Yiqing Environment address the challenges of low viral load, strong sample interference, and significant technical limitations in environmental virus detection? Dr. Zhang Dayi explained that, leveraging its extensive experience in developing environmental monitoring equipment, Yiqing Environment has achieved innovative breakthroughs in a series of key steps from sample enrichment to detection. By optimizing core units and integrating the entire system, the company has significantly improved the effectiveness of environmental virus detection.

Due to the low viral load in environmental samples, effective enrichment is typically required prior to testing. Achieving efficient and standardized enrichment of SARS-CoV-2 remains the greatest challenge facing all current detection technologies.

Drawing on the principles of its proprietary high-efficiency magnetic coagulation technology and leveraging the structural design of the most advanced international aerosol sampling equipment, Yiqing Environmental’s technical team has developed novel organic polymer-modified magnetic nanomaterials and highly efficient ultra-trace aerosol capture components. Through surface polymer engineering and computational fluid dynamics design, these innovations significantly enhance the capture efficiency of viruses from environmental samples.

By leveraging these technologies, the enrichment module of this rapid online SARS-CoV-2 detection device can achieve rapid and automated capture of viruses from air or water samples, with an enrichment efficiency of 100–300-fold, ultimately yielding a 3 mL viral concentrate to facilitate subsequent testing procedures.

Traditional viral nucleic acid extraction relies on specialized extraction equipment, which is typically bulky and occupies a large footprint. Yiqing Environment has innovatively proposedIntegrated magnetic separation and pipetting concept has enabled the development of a nucleic acid purification unit that is only one-tenth the size of traditional equipment., capable of efficiently lysing and automatically extracting SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids to rapidly obtain high-concentration purified viral nucleic acid solutions.

To address the technical bottleneck of long detection cycles associated with traditional nucleic acid PCR amplification technology, Yiqing Environment has introduced loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technology into its equipment.. By leveraging our independently developed ultra-compact amplification platform, stable reverse transcription and high-fidelity amplification detection of viral nucleic acids can be achieved, enabling precise determination of viral load and accurate identification of positive samples.

In addition to optimizing modules such as sample enrichment and detection, the Yiqing Environmental Technology team has integrated a next-generation antibody-spectroscopy detection technology for SARS-CoV-2 into the device. By capturing and analyzing signals from “antigen-antibody” chips using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), the system achieves ultra-rapid, specific detection of SARS-CoV-2.

This technology constructs an “antigen-antibody” SERS chip capable of amplifying surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals by modifying the surface of silver nanopillar clusters with human ACE2 protein. During environmental sample testing, the silver nanopillar cluster–ACE2 protein structure on the chip can specifically capture and bind to SARS-CoV-2, resulting in SERS signal quenching and a Raman red shift. Using spectral signal processing software, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the sample can be determined within seconds.

Leveraging the ultra-sensitive capture and high-gain spectral signals of “antigen-antibody” SERS chips, Yiqing Environment’s devices enable rapid and highly accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2, even with trace viral loads in samples.

It is worth noting that this technology is not limited to the detection of SARS-CoV-2.By modifying the immobilization methods for human receptor proteins on “antigen–antibody” chips, a series of rapid-detection chips and assays can be developed for influenza virus, Ebola virus, and other pathogens.

Since its establishment, Yiqing Environment has consistently adhered to the corporate philosophy of “aspiring to excellence while remaining grounded, and serving the nation and its people.” Focusing on academic frontiers, the company conducts research and development targeting rapid detection in ecological and biosafety—an issue of significant international concern. Dr. Zhang Dayi has repeatedly undertaken national-level rapid risk assessments for major safety incidents, including the Dalian Xin’gang oil explosion, the Lanzhou tap water benzene contamination incident, and the Qingdao Huangdao explosion.

In the face of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Zhang Dayi led the Yiqing Environmental Technology team to join medical personnel from all sectors in rushing to Wuhan against the tide. They arrived at the front lines without delay to participate in epidemic prevention and control efforts, remaining steadfast on the frontline during the most critical phase of the outbreak.

Yiqing Environmental Technology Team Members Participate in Wuhan’s Anti-Epidemic Work

During this period, Yiqing Environment collected more than 500 precious environmental samples from over 20 medical institutions and drainage systems in Wuhan, as well as from 24 lakes and water sources of various types. It was also during this time that Yiqing Environment’s rapid online detection device for the novel coronavirus was proven, through extensive validation and demonstration, to be suitable for transportation vehicles such as airplanes and trains, as well as various public places. The device enables online, rapid, and precise detection of the novel coronavirus in locations with high population density and mobility.

Currently,The virus enrichment collection module and the intelligent data processing module of this rapid online COVID-19 testing device were independently developed by the Yiqing Environmental Technology team., certain hardware modules were jointly developed with institutions and enterprises such as the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing Nari Shuili Shuidian Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the State Grid Corporation of China. Meanwhile, Yiqing Environment has established partnerships with local equipment and component manufacturers in Suzhou to facilitate the production and processing of related equipment.

Regarding future development, Dr. Zhang Dayi stated that the next steps will involveAccelerate the R&D of second- and third-generation online rapid viral detection devices to further achieve miniaturized integration and high-level intelligence.. The scope of detection will gradually expand from environmental samples to human specimens, with the development of front-end modules for collecting human exhaled breath, aiming to create portable rapid testing devices for SARS-CoV-2 similar to breathalyzer alcohol testers.

Perhaps in the near future, this suitcase-sized detection device could shrink to the size of a computer, or even become handheld, expanding its application scenarios from public places such as airports and shopping malls to home and personal travel settings.

It is reported that,Yiqing Environment has currently launched a new round of financing, aiming to raise RMB 5–10 million. The funds will be primarily used to optimize the product production line and increase daily output, as well as to recruit professional technical talent, thereby strengthening the company’s capabilities in R&D and market expansion.。