Engineering Enzymes to Transform Molecular Diagnostics

该项目专注于工程酶，以实现高度创新的无仪器分子诊断测试平台。COVID-19疫情凸显了传统方法检测呼吸道病毒的缺陷。虽然实验室PCR（分子）测试具有金标准性能，但它们需要专业设备和复杂的物流，这意味着无法及时获得结果，以告知有效的治疗或隔离决策。相比之下，快速侧向流检测便宜且方便，但由于其固有的低灵敏度和可变性能，错过了许多感染病例。酶是每种分子诊断检测的核心，但历史上很少有人努力定制其特性以创新产品形式。工程生物学的最新进展为设计和改造具有所需性能的酶提供了一个令人信服的机会，以实现从根本上全新的检测类别。该项目中设计的增强型酶将实现无需仪器的分子检测，该分子检测在类似于抗原检测的简单、快速、低成本设备中实现实验室PCR准确性，结合了每种检测类型的优点。

This project is focussed on engineering enzymes to realise a highly innovative instrument-free molecular diagnostic testing platform.The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the flaws with conventional approaches to the detection of respiratory viruses. Whilst laboratory PCR (molecular) tests exhibit gold-standard performance they require specialist equipment and complex logistics meaning that results are not available in time to inform effective treatment or isolation decisions. In contrast, rapid lateral flow tests are cheap and convenient but miss many cases of infection due to their inherent low sensitivity and variable performance.Enzymes are at the heart of every molecular diagnostic test, yet historically little effort has been made to tailor their properties for innovative product formats. Recent advances in engineering biology now present a compelling opportunity to design and engineer enzymes with the required performance to realise fundamentally new classes of test.The enhanced enzymes engineered in this project will enable an instrument-free molecular test that achieves laboratory PCR accuracy in a simple, rapid, low-cost device analogous to an antigen test, combining the benefits of each type of test.