Could coronavirus test invented in Bucks end lockdown?
Dr Baker's test detects whether you have COVID-19 in just 30 seconds
A COVID-19 test invented in Buckinghamshire can detect whether you're infected with the virus in just 30 seconds.
Scientist Dr Mark Baker, who lives in Adstock, has been developing a test which has now won international awards and hopes if he receives the funding it could bring an end to lockdown.
His device, which clips onto a smartphone, is a simple home test which works by pricking the finger and putting a drop of blood onto a test strip. This then goes into a machine and gives you a positive or negative result in around 30 seconds.
The test can also detect whether you have the virus before you get any symptoms.
Dr Baker is a former cancer scientist at Oxford University and has been working on an artificial intelligence system to find hidden patterns in medical data for the last two-years.
He then applied this system to COVID-19 data, which he was allowed access to during an international competition that he ended up winning.
Dr Baker now has the backing of the government and will receive a grant of £262,000 which will go towards rolling out the test to the public.
But, he needs our help.
In order to get this grant he has to raise enough cash to fund the next few months of research.
Mark has started a Crowdfunder in the hope the public will help him reach his goal and get this test off the ground.
He told us:
"It actually could be the test that ends lockdown and ends the cycle we have of quarantine.
"Also the psychological damage, the stress it causes everyone and the economic damage - it could be the thing to stops that.
"I think that's why the government choice to back it and why we have a number of large organisations very interested."