Design and development of an at-home COVID-19 detection kit with custom-engineered microbial sensors

设计和开发带有定制工程微生物传感器的家用 COVID-19 检测套件

• 批准号: 556401-2020
• 负责人: Tharmalingam, Sujeenthar
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: Laurentian University of Sudbury
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=706328
• 关键词: Design; development; home; COVID; 19

The overall goal of this study is to develop an at-home COVID-19 diagnostic test using custom-engineered microbial sensors. Current COVID-19 detection techniques require labor-intensive and resource-draining methodologies that rely on purification of viral genetic material followed by genetic sequence amplification and detection on highly specialized instruments. Although this approach is highly specific and sensitive, the bottleneck and delays required to get samples to accredited labs that can perform such technical experiments can cause multi-day delays. To date, studies developing alternate COVID-19 detection techniques are focusing on RNA/DNA methodologies or antibody based viral particle detection. Our proposed technology will introduce a completely novel approach to infectious pathogen detection. Here, we propose a novel approach of custom-engineering eco-friendly microorganisms designed to detect COVID-19 infections. We plan to engineer these microbes with biological sensors that are highly specific and sensitive for COVID-19. The simplicity of our design lies in the natural exponential growth capacity of these engineered microbes. Essentially, incubation of swab samples with our engineered microbial strains will be sufficient for analysis. The readout of this novel assay will be simply the absence or presence of culture growth. Our radical approach to COVID-19 detection will serve as a new frontier in the field of diagnostic assays for infectious diseases.

本研究的总体目标是使用定制设计的微生物传感器开发一种家用 COVID-19 诊断测试。目前的 COVID-19 检测技术需要劳动密集型和资源消耗的方法，这些方法依赖于病毒遗传物质的纯化，然后在高度专业化的仪器上进行基因序列扩增和检测。尽管这种方法具有高度特异性和敏感性，但将样品运送到可以进行此类技术实验的认可实验室所需的瓶颈和延迟可能会导致多天的延迟。迄今为止，开发替代性 COVID-19 检测技术的研究主要集中在 RNA/DNA 方法或基于抗体的病毒颗粒检测上。我们提出的技术将引入一种全新的传染性病原体检测方法。在这里，我们提出了一种定制工程环保微生物的新方法，旨在检测 COVID-19 感染。我们计划用对 COVID-19 具有高度特异性和敏感性的生物传感器来设计这些微生物。我们设计的简单性在于这些工程微生物的自然指数增长能力。本质上，用我们的工程微生物菌株孵育拭子样本就足以进行分析。这种新颖测定的读数将只是培养物生长的存在或不存在。 我们对 COVID-19 检测的激进方法将成为传染病诊断检测领域的新前沿。