SBIR Phase I: Development of a Novel Biosensor to Accelerate Investigations of COVID-19 and the Gut Microbiome.

小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将是加深对SARS-CoV-2、新冠肺炎和人类肠道微生物群之间相互作用的理解，可能会为新冠肺炎患者带来新的治疗方法。该项目将开发一种新型生物传感器，以实现对人类肠道微生物群和新冠肺炎之间联系的低成本、高度标准化的研究，以帮助评估不同治疗方法、药物、疫苗和其他临床干预措施的性能。最后，一旦该项目成功完成，就有一个较长期的机会来增加该技术的检测能力，从而能够在家中实时跟踪高危患者及其照顾者的粪便样本中SARS-CoV-2的流行情况。这将使这项技术成为一种连续的病毒检测工具。拟议的项目将推进一种传感器，允许从粪便样本中分离和保存微生物RNA。现有的技术可以保存微生物的DNA，但不够灵敏，不足以保存远不稳定的RNA。该项目将根据技术性能、RNA稳定性长度、试剂成本和储存要求来评估候选提取和固定试剂。同时，该项目将开发先进的系统架构，使可扩展的解决方案能够广泛使用。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。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be advanced understanding of the interaction between SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, and the human gut microbiome, potentially resulting in new treatment approaches for COVID-19 patients. This project will develop a novel biosensor to enable low-cost, highly standardized studies of links between the human gut microbiome and COVID-19 to help evaluate the performance of different therapeutic approaches, drugs, vaccines, and other clinical interventions. Finally, once this project is successfully completed, there is a longer-term opportunity to add detection capability to the technology, enabling real-time, at-home tracking of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in stool samples of high-risk patients and their caretakers. This would enable the technology to become a continuous viral detection tool.The proposed project will advance a sensor to allow isolation and preservation of microbial RNA from stool samples. Existing technique preserve microbial DNA but are not sensitive enough to preserve the far less stable RNA. The project will evaluate candidate extraction and fixative reagents based on technical performance, length of RNA stability, reagent cost, and storage requirements. Simultaneously, the project will develop an advanced systems architecture enabling a scalable solution for widespread use.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.