SBIR Phase I: A Versatile Nucleic Acid Collection and Purification Technology for Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

SBIR 第一阶段：用于废水流行病学的多功能核酸收集和纯化技术

• 批准号: 2224172
• 负责人: Kyle King
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: FRONTLINE BIOTECHNOLOGIES INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224172&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Versatile; Nucleic; Acid

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to provide private and public stakeholders with new technological tools to better monitor and predict pandemics. This project is expected to modernize the tools used today by private and public laboratories to collect and purify pathogens, particularly human coronaviruses from community wastewater, for testing and diagnostic purposes. The new technological tools are expected to simplify the workflow, reduce costs and time, and enable the prediction of COVID-19 outbreaks and other pandemics several weeks before observing clinical cases. Such early prediction would provide the public and government agencies with important data and sufficient time to take preventive measures. The technological products of this project are expected to empower the growing number of companies and laboratories offering wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) services and help establish WBE as a routine, cost-effective and reliable tool for public health monitoring.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will address a major technological barrier for the detection of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Commercially available nucleic acid collection and purification kits are designed for clinical samples with small volumes. These kits are not generally used for large wastewater volumes where the virus is present at low concentrations. As a result, current processes are time-consuming, and result in the recovery of less than 30% of viruses and nucleic acids, significantly reducing the sensitivity. The goal of this SBIR Phase I project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel virus and nucleic acid collection and purification technology from wastewater. Specifically, the project tasks aim at enhancing understanding of virus properties, particularly human coronaviruses in wastewater and their interactions with filter media. The project’s innovative approach is to design a streamlined workflow that includes all the steps from sample collection to detection, in a single disposable cartridge containing novel filters with high affinity to viruses. This development is expected to enhance viral and nucleic acid recovery in wastewater to over 90%, while reducing costs. The developed tools will be independently tested and evaluated by third-party laboratories to confirm their performance.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.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为私人和公共利益相关者提供新的技术工具，以更好地监测和预测流行病。该项目预计将使私人和公共实验室目前用于收集和纯化病原体的工具现代化，特别是从社区废水中收集和纯化人类冠状病毒，用于测试和诊断目的。新的技术工具预计将简化工作流程，降低成本和时间，并能够在观察临床病例前几周预测COVID-19爆发和其他大流行病。这种早期预测将为公众和政府机构提供重要的数据和足够的时间采取预防措施。该项目的技术产品预计将使越来越多的公司和实验室能够提供基于废水的流行病学（WBE）服务，并帮助建立WBE作为常规，具有成本效益和可靠的公共卫生监测工具。这一小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将解决检测废水中的病毒（如SARS-CoV-2）的主要技术障碍。市售的核酸收集和纯化试剂盒设计用于小体积的临床样品。 这些试剂盒通常不用于病毒浓度较低的大量废水。因此，目前的方法是耗时的，并且导致回收不到30%的病毒和核酸，显著降低了灵敏度。SBIR第一阶段项目的目标是证明一种新型的病毒和核酸收集和纯化技术的可行性。具体而言，项目任务旨在加强对病毒特性的了解，特别是废水中的人类冠状病毒及其与过滤介质的相互作用。该项目的创新方法是设计一个简化的工作流程，包括从样本收集到检测的所有步骤，在一个一次性盒中包含对病毒具有高亲和力的新型过滤器。这一进展有望将废水中的病毒和核酸回收率提高到90%以上，同时降低成本。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。