The application of low-dimensional materials in virology and in the study of living organisms

The reach and the rate of spread of viral infectious diseases have vastly increased owing to changes in various environmental, biological, socioeconomic, and political factors as well as expansion of international travel and trade. Consequently, the need for more rapid outbreak detection and efficient monitoring of the spread of the infection to minimize the burden on global health and the economy has also become of paramount importance. Rapid isolation, identification, and full characterization of viruses from field samples are critical in the prevention of the epidemics. In this regard, nanotechnology has emerged as a significant platform for human health care and point-of-care diagnosis of interactions in the cellular and subcellular scales. This chapter presents a review of the exploration of low-dimensional materials, such as carbon nanotubes and transition metal dichalcogenides in developing lab-on-a-chip system applicable in virology as a point-of-care device for size-based virus capture and enrichment for any virus. Future prospects of these materials in epidemiology are also discussed.