RAPID: Development of Rapid Point of Care SARS-CoV-2 Detection System

该奖项由分子和细胞生物科学部的系统和合成生物学集群以及化学生物工程、环境和运输系统部的生物传感项目共同资助。对冠状病毒快速检测平台的需求对于应对目前在全球蔓延的COVID-19大流行至关重要。目前，导致COVID-19疾病的病毒SARS-CoV-2的实验室检测时间可能长达几天。与这种检测有关的延误已经造成诊断和数据采集的大量滞后时间；因此，迫切需要采取行动，开发敏感、快速和简单易用的平台。PI正在开发一锅样品到答案分析自动化流程，该流程将检测SARS冠状病毒，并产生信息和流程，这些信息和流程被证明可用于创建符合人体工程学的即时诊断平台。该方法的模块化设计保留了快速分析可编程性，可用于导航限制，如不断进化的病毒基因组和低资源现场部署。这一基础技术的进一步翻译将有助于检测流感和登革热病毒等其他已确定和新出现的病原体。该方法的开发涉及研究生和本科生的研究、开发、营销和商业化努力。这些检测方法是与德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校新生研究计划（University of Texas at Austin Freshman Research Initiative）联合开发的，来自不同背景的本科生从入学第一天起就参与了最前沿的研究。德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的艾灵顿实验室（Ellington Lab）和Fabrico Technology Inc.正在开发一种完整、快速的SARS-CoV-2病毒即时检测系统。该系统以测试形式提供准确的病毒检测，可在临床和现场环境中进行。SARS-CoV-2检测使用多重环介导的等温扩增，结合序列解析探针系统，该系统采用寡核苷酸链置换原理和布尔网络设计，只有在一次反应中识别出所有预期的病毒特征时，才能计算出准确的阳性读数。模块化设计保留了快速分析可编程性，以应对生物和后勤限制，如不断进化的病毒基因组和低资源现场部署。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is co-funded by the Systems and Synthetic Biology cluster in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and the Biosensing Program in the Division of Chemical Bioengineering Environmental and Transport Systems. The need for a rapid coronavirus test platform is critical for confronting the COVID-19 pandemic which is pervasive throughout the world at the moment. The current lab testing time for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, could be up to several days. The delays associated with such testing have already contributed to substantial lag times for diagnosis and data acquisition; therefore, urgent action is needed for the development of sensitive, rapid and simple-to-use platforms. The PI is developing one-pot sample-to-answer assay automated process that would detect the SARS coronavirus and yield information and process flows that prove to be generally informative for creating ergonomic point-of-care diagnostic platforms. The modular design of the method preserves rapid assay programmability for navigating constraints such as evolving viral genomes and low resource field deployment. Further translations of this foundational technology will aid detection efforts for other established and emerging pathogens such as Influenza and Dengue viruses. Development of the method involves both graduate and undergraduates students with research, development, marketing and commercialization efforts. Assays are being developed in conjunction with the University of Texas at Austin Freshman Research Initiative where undergraduate students from many backgrounds are involved in cutting edge research from their first days on campusThe Ellington Lab at the University of Texas at Austin and Fabrico Technology Inc. are developing a complete and rapid point-of-care detection system for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The system provides accurate detection of the virus in a test format that can be performed in both clinical and field settings. The SARS-CoV-2 assay uses multiplex loop-mediated isothermal amplification integrated with a sequence-parsing probe system designed using principles of oligonucleotide strand displacement and a Boolean network to compute an accurate positive readout only when all intended viral signatures are identified in a single reaction. The modular design preserves rapid assay programability for navigating both biological and logistical constraints such as evolving viral genomes and low resource field deployment.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.