RAPID: Combined Antigen and Serology Rapid Test for COVID-19

新冠肺炎疫情目前是许多国家的大流行性疾病和突发公共卫生事件。全人群检测对控制疫情至关重要，定期重新检测对于防止未来传播高峰将是重要的。杜克大学奇尔科蒂教授的研究团队旨在开发一种快速而敏感的测试方法，检测冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)用于感染诊断，并检测患者衍生的抗体用于免疫评估。这种组合形式的好处是，如果对有症状的患者的SARS-CoV-2检测结果为阴性，血清学结果将表明是否存在以前的感染。对于无症状的患者，也可以检测到隐藏的活动性感染。传感方法旨在使只受过最低医学培训的人员能够轻松地进行样本处理和测试。这个项目旨在开发一种简单易用且可广泛部署的生物传感器，为研究生提供研究培训机会，并帮助培养一支熟练的劳动力，为生物传感和生物医学工程领域做好准备。多重护理点检测旨在检测鼻拭子中的病毒核衣壳蛋白(N)和患者从几滴血中提取的针对病毒S1刺突蛋白(S1)的抗体。它使用单一的标准化微流控芯片，允许同时测试拭子缓冲区和全血。在添加患者样本后，无需用户干预，检测即可自动完成。它采用了一种高灵敏度和廉价的手持探测器D4Scope，不需要外部电源或实验室基础设施。结果可以无线传输到远程服务器。这一奖项反映了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。

COVID-19 outbreak is currently a pandemic disease and public health emergency in many countries. Population-wide testing is critical for controlling the outbreak and periodic retesting will be important to prevent future spikes in transmission. The research team of Prof. Chilkoti at Duke University aims to develop a rapid and sensitive test that detects coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) for infection diagnosis and patient-derived antibodies for immunity assessment. The benefit of this combined format is that if the test results are negative for SARS-CoV-2 on symptomatic patients, serology results will indicate if a previous infection existed. For asymptomatic patients, hidden active infections can also be detected. The sensing method is designed to enable sample handling and testing to be easily performed by personnel who have minimal medical training. This project on developing a simple to use and widely deployable biosensor provides research training opportunities to graduate students and helps to prepare a skilled workforce for the biosensing and biomedical engineering fields.The multiplex point-of-care test is designed for detecting the viral nucleocapsid protein (N) from nasal swabs and patient-derived antibodies against the viral S1 spike protein (S1) from a few drops of blood. It uses a single, standardized microfluidic chip that allows testing of both swab buffers and whole blood. Upon addition of a patient's samples, the assay automatically advances to completion without user intervention. It employs a highly sensitive and inexpensive handheld detector, the D4Scope, that does not require an external power source or laboratory infrastructure. The results can be wirelessly transmitted to a remote server.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.