RAPID: Rapid and Point-of-Care Electrical Detection of COVID-19 RNA

RAPID：快速床边电检测 COVID-19 RNA

• 批准号: 2031770
• 负责人: Seong Jin Koh
• 金额: $ 8万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Arlington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2022-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2031770&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Rapid; Point; Care; Electrical

The current pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and its reoccurrence is a great threat to public health, the economy, and national security. To cope with this emergency, there is a need for a testing method that is rapid, accurate, and deployable in the field (doctor’s offices, hospitals, airports, etc.) at a large scale. Typically, a COVID-19 test takes several hours day as it involves sending the patient’s sample to a limited number of certified labs or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, it is extremely alarming that the current capacity of COVID-19 testing is significantly lower than the desired capacity. To address this situation, this project proposes a transformative detection technique that enables rapid, portable, and direct electrical detection of COVID-19 RNA in less than ten minutes on a silicon chip test kit smaller than the size of an average human thumb with high sensitivity and specificity. These silicon chip test kits can be cost-effectively mass-produced using standard well-established CMOS technology. The success of this RAPID RAPID project will have a transformative impact in the present COVID-19 pandemic environment not only in U.S. but also globally.The proposed technique offers detection of single COVID-19 RNA molecules directly and electrically in less than 10 minutes on a one square centimeter Si chip. A specific sequence T-oligo of 30-mer COVID-19 RNA will be used as the target molecule. Numerous single T-oligo molecules will be sandwiched between two Au functionalized metal nanoparticles. One metal nanoparticle will be in contact with a negative electrode and the other metal nanoparticle with a positive electrode, providing electrical paths between the two electrodes. A voltage bias between the two electrodes will produce an electrical current, thereby enabling direct electrical detection of single T-oligo molecule. This direct electrical detection of COVID-19 RNA will occur in a circular nanowell of ~100 nm diameter, which acts as an independent COVID-19 RNA detector. One COVID-19 test kit of one square centimeter will be made to accommodate two and half billion nanowell COVID-19 detectors. This enormous number of detectors on a single test kit enables a highly sensitive and rapid detection of single COVID-19 RNA molecules. Furthermore, RNA detection has been relying on time-consuming technique of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In the proposed approach single target RNA molecules will be directly detected without reverse transcription and PCR amplification reaction there by expending the test results with more sensitivity and specificity. The technique will have extended applications in other infectious diseases, fundamental biomedical research, pharmaceutical drug development, and early disease diagnosis.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.

当前冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行及其复发对公共卫生、经济和国家安全构成巨大威胁。为了科普这种紧急情况，需要一种快速、准确且可在现场（医生办公室、医院、机场等）部署的测试方法。在大规模上。通常情况下，COVID-19测试需要几个小时，因为它涉及将患者的样本发送到有限数量的认证实验室或疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）。 此外，令人极为担忧的是，目前COVID-19检测的能力明显低于预期能力。为了解决这种情况，该项目提出了一种变革性的检测技术，可以在不到10分钟的时间内在比人类拇指平均尺寸小的硅芯片检测试剂盒上快速，便携和直接地检测COVID-19 RNA，具有高灵敏度和特异性。这些硅芯片测试套件可以使用标准的成熟CMOS技术进行成本有效的大规模生产。RAPID RAPID项目的成功将对当前的COVID-19大流行环境产生变革性影响，不仅在美国，而且在全球范围内。该技术在不到10分钟的时间内在一平方厘米的硅芯片上直接和电学地检测单个COVID-19 RNA分子。30-mer COVID-19 RNA的特定序列T-oligo将用作靶分子。 许多单个T-oligo分子将夹在两个Au官能化的金属纳米颗粒之间。一个金属纳米颗粒将与负电极接触，另一个金属纳米颗粒与正电极接触，从而在两个电极之间提供电路径。两个电极之间的电压偏置将产生电流，从而能够直接电检测单个T-寡聚分子。COVID-19 RNA的这种直接电检测将发生在直径约100 nm的圆形微室中，其作为独立的COVID-19 RNA检测器。一个1平方厘米的COVID-19检测试剂盒将容纳25亿个COVID-19检测器。单个检测试剂盒上的大量检测器能够高度灵敏和快速地检测单个COVID-19 RNA分子。此外，RNA检测一直依赖于耗时的逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）技术。 该方法不需要逆转录和PCR扩增反应，直接检测单个靶RNA分子，从而提高了检测结果的灵敏度和特异性。该技术将在其他传染病、基础生物医学研究、药物开发和早期疾病诊断中得到广泛应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。