Development of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test Strip for at Home Diagnosis of COVID-19

COVID-19导致了前所未有的全球健康危机。现有检测手段的短缺和这些检测手段所需的繁琐程序阻碍了对疾病的追踪和对受感染者的及时隔离。拟议项目旨在为COVID-19开发一种高度准确、快速且负担得起的检测方法。对有症状和无症状的人进行广泛和立即的检测对于有效实施遏制政策至关重要。还迫切需要快速低成本检测，以确保根据感染率将医疗资源适当分配给各地理区域。高风险群体，特别是土著社区和农村地区的人口，由于他们获得医疗中心服务的机会有限，特别容易受到伤害。基于开发用于检测普通感冒的方法，我们的目标是开发包含与病毒结合时具有独特反应的颗粒的测试条。这些反应可以用低成本的技术来检测。该项目将通过开发用于家庭诊断的诊断测试条来促进COVID-19的广泛测试。该团队将与行业合作伙伴BioMedica Diagnostics的专家在项目的每一步进行合作，以确保开发出适合大规模生产和商业化的诊断方法。该项目的成功完成将推进床旁诊断领域的最新技术水平，并为COVID-19检测提供实用高效的解决方案。

COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented global health crisis. The shortage of available testing and the cumbersome process these tests entail has hampered tracking the disease and timely isolation of infected individuals. The proposed project aims to develop a highly accurate, fast and affordable test for the COVID-19. Extensive and immediate testing of symptomatic and asymptomatic people is critical for effective implementation of containment policies. Rapid low-cost testing is also urgently needed to ensure that medical resources can be appropriately apportioned to geographic regions based on infection rates. The high risk groups, especially indigenous communities and the population living in rural areas are particularly vulnerable as their access to medical centers is limited. Based on a method developed to detect the common cold, we aim to develop the test strip that contains particles which have unique responses when bound to the virus. These responses can be detected with a low-cost technology. This project will facilitate widespread testing for COVID-19 by developing diagnostic test strip for at home diagnosis. The team will collaborate on each step of the project with experts from industry partner BioMedica Diagnostics, which will ensure the development of a diagnostic method that is suitable for large scale manufacturing and commercialization. Successful completion of the project will advance the state of the art in the field of point-of-care diagnostic, and provide practical and efficient solutions for COVID-19 testing.