CAREER: Development of a point-of-care platform for the detection of infectious viruses

每年，传染性病毒在全球范围内造成数百万人死亡。目前用于检测病毒感染的技术通常需要多个劳动密集型步骤，并且需要昂贵且笨重的设备，因此不适合在护理点(POC)设置中进行快速疾病检测。这一职业项目的目标是开发一种样本输入-回答-输出技术，以便在POC环境下以最少的样本准备同时快速检测多个病毒。它的目标是生产一种低成本的一次性设备，将全自动检测与基于智能手机的读数相结合，用于报告和监测当前和新出现的传染病。该项目将多学科研究与教育活动相结合，以吸引不同级别的高中教师和学生(K-12、本科生和研究生)。通过将科学研究和设备工程相结合，佛罗里达大西洋大学的Asghar小组致力于开发一种低成本、功能强大的设备，可以广泛用于病毒感染的POC诊断。研究团队探索了在集成了磁致动平台和基于智能手机的读数的微流控设备中使用水-油相间分离，以实现自动化和提高产量。能够以最少的样品准备和资源分析复杂样品(包括血液、唾液和尿液)的方法包括使用反转录环介导的等温扩增(RT-LAMP)和使用合成的“自我避免”核苷酸类似物来解决目前引物二聚体的限制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Every year, infectious viruses cause millions of deaths worldwide. Current technologies for testing virus infections often require multiple labor-intensive steps and need costly and bulky equipment, hence are not suitable for rapid disease testing at point-of-care (POC) settings. The goal of this CAREER project is to develop a sample-in-answer-out technology for rapid detection of multiple viruses simultaneously with minimal sample preparation at POC settings. It aims to produce a low-cost, disposable device that integrates fully automated assay with smartphone-based readout for reporting and surveillance of current and emerging infectious diseases. This project integrates multidisciplinary research with educational activities to engage high school teachers and students at different levels (K-12, undergraduate and graduate students). It helps to prepare a skilled workforce and broaden participation in STEM fields.Through combined scientific research and device engineering, the Asghar group at Florida Atlantic University aims to develop a low-cost, functional device that can be widely deployed for POC diagnosis of viral infections. The research team explores the use of water-oil interphase separation in a microfluidic device integrated with magnetic actuation platform and smartphone-based readout to allow automation and improve throughout. The approaches to enabling analysis of complex samples (including blood, saliva and urine) with minimal sample preparation and resources include employing reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) and using synthetic "self-avoiding" nucleotide analogs to address the current limitations of primer dimerization.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.