Without an effective treatment or vaccine for African swine fever, or ASF, an outbreak of the disease can devastate swine herds. But work led by Fulton Schools Assistant Professor Chao Wang in ASU’s Biodesign Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics is showing promise for a new and improved method for early diagnosis of ASF. Wang’s research combines nanoscience and biotechnology, and his expertise includes medical point-of-care biosensing technologies. This project involves design and validation of a portable diagnostic sensing device using metal nanoparticles with different optical characteristics to find ASF biomarkers. Wang and his colleagues have funding from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to pursue further development of their diagnostic test. The article is also published in Farms.com, News-Medical.net and Science Magazine.