Rapid, portable, and scalable Covid-19 antibody testing

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Determining antibody levels in humans is crucial for monitoring immunity against Covid-19 andtackling the national crisis. Antibody levels report about a previous infection and help decidewhether people can return to work or live with others without spreading the disease. To beeffective for national screening, antibody testing should deliver accurate results to individualsideally within minutes, and be portable as well as high-throughput. Existing techniques based onimmunosorbent assays do not deliver these benefits due to the need for multiple liquid handlingsteps, signal amplification, insufficient accuracy, or read-out with bulky optical equipment.This project will deliver fast, portable, high-throughput and accurate antibody sensing bypioneering step-changing sensor nanopores from the lead PI at University College LondonChemistry (UCLC), and by integrating them into memory-stick-sized on-the-market kits fromindustrial partner and biotech unicorn Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT). These MinIONanalysis kits have ushered in a revolution in portable DNA sequencing and are currently used forunravelling the Covid-19 sequence. The PI has a strong working relationship with the company andhas licensed sequencing pore technology which has been one key component to make the MinIONa success. In this project, the technology will be adapted with wider nanopores tailored for Covid-19 antibodies. The new sensor pores can be plugged into the existing MinION kits without theneed for redesigning the device, thereby ensuring production to scale. The devices will be clinicallytested and benchmarked by Co-PI and intensive care and monitoring specialist Prof. Mervyn Singerat UCL Medicine (UCLM). All project partners have previously successfully worked together in jointgrants, for publications, or via technology licensing contracts.