Engineering Enzymes to Transform Molecular Diagnostics

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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.