Abstract: Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is a universal pathogen-associated molecular pattern, and nearly all viruses produce dsRNA in their life cycle, making it a crucial biomarker for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) detection, particularly those caused by unknown viruses. Surprisingly, dsRNA-centered approaches for virus sensing are hard to come by and remain underrepresented in the current literature. This talk discusses a sensitive, scalable, and selective dsRNA biosensing assay by structurally engineering a viral protein as a bioreceptor. The assay is integrated with Oxford nanopore direct RNA sequencing strategy for qualitative analysis of dsRNA, and viral species identification via reference database mapping, making it one of the very first dsRNA-based virus monitoring platforms, especially useful for EIDs (unknown pathogenic threat).