In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, we meet Laura Lechuga, who is coordinating the EU-funded CONVAT programme to develop a nanophotonic biosensor for detecting the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Based at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology near Barcelona, Lechuga explains how the biosensor works and talks abouts its benefits compared to existing coronavirus tests.

Also in this week’s episode is medical physicist Katia Parodi of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, who is the new editor-in-chief of the journal Physics in Medicine & Biology. Parodi talks about her plans for the journal and identifies hot topics in medical physics such as artificial intelligence. She also chats about some of her current research interests including range verification for particle therapy