RAPID: Plasmonically-enhanced Detection of Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19)

2019年冠状病毒病(新冠肺炎)是一种高度传染性的大流行性疾病，已迅速传播到全球数十万人，并导致许多人死亡。为了便于监测和控制病毒的传播，圣路易斯华盛顿大学的Singamaneni教授致力于开发一种快速且低成本的诊断方法，可以检测到没有症状或表现出轻微症状的个人的感染情况。灵敏的生物传感方法旨在以高通量方式快速评估大量人群对冠状病毒的免疫反应，并使人们能够了解这种高度传染性疾病的流行病学。这种新型生物传感器适用于护理地点和资源有限的环境，并可以很容易地适应广泛的公共卫生威胁。这项研究项目为研究生提供了在传感器设计和传感器性能研究方面进行培训的机会。本项目的目的是设计和实现一种双模式侧向流动试验，用于高灵敏度和特异性地检测冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)的抗体(SARS-CoV-2)。具体地说，双模式侧向流动分析依赖于等离子体-荧光，一种超亮的荧光纳米结构，以实现高灵敏度和低检测限。除了超亮的荧光信号外，等离子体荧光还表现出很大的吸收和散射截面，这使得它们成为具有吸引力的标记，在高目标浓度下可以用肉眼直接看到。这种双模式横向流动分析能够同时检测相对高浓度的抗体作为简单的比色信号，而通过高度敏感的荧光信号检测低浓度的抗体。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious, pandemic disease that has rapidly spread to several hundred thousand people worldwide and caused many deaths. To facilitate the surveillance and control of the spread of the virus, Prof. Singamaneni of Washington University at St. Louis aims to develop a rapid and low-cost diagnostic method that can detect infection in individuals that are asymptomatic or exhibiting mild symptoms. The sensitive biosensing method is designed to rapidly assess the immune response to the coronavirus across a large population in a high-throughput manner and to enable understanding of the epidemiology of the highly contagious disease. The novel biosensor is suitable for point-of-care and resource-limited settings and can be easily adapted to a broad range of public health threats. This research project provides opportunities to graduate students to be trained in sensor design and the study of sensor performance. The aim of this project is to design and realize a dual-modal lateral flow assay for highly sensitive and specific detection of IgG and IgM antibodies to coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) using plasmon-enhanced fluorescence. Specifically, the dual-modal lateral flow assay relies on plasmonic-fluor, an ultrabright fluorescent nanostructure, to achieve high sensitivity and low detection limit. In addition to ultrabright fluorescence signal, plasmonic-fluors exhibit large absorption and scattering cross-section, making them attractive labels that can be directly visualized by naked eye at high target concentrations. This dual-modal lateral flow assay enables simultaneous detection of relatively high concentrations of the antibodies as a simple colorimetric signal and low concentrations of the antibodies through highly sensitive fluorescence signal.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.