RAPID: Revolutionary Massively-Parallel Bioreactions for COVID-19

该项目将为一种新的测试和诊断提供基础，该测试和诊断可以在2分钟内完成，成本低至2美元。这可以常规用于在机场、医院或长期护理机构入口处检测隐藏的疾病传播者。这种诊断方法的可用性将是变革性的。这种速度快、成本低的分子检测方法可以首次用于诊断COVID-19等疾病。两分钟和两美元足够快，也足够便宜，可以在机场进行这种常规筛查，在飞机上下飞机时检测出无症状的传播者。因此，这一工具可以防止这类疾病在最初爆发后蔓延。同样，该方法可用于在医院、长期护理机构或监狱工作时对员工进行筛查，避免COVID-19等疾病造成的巨大损失。最后，该方法可以用于工厂，食品加工或分销设施以及大型政府大楼等大型设施的常规检查，使我们的经济恢复到更正常的状态。这项研究还将带来有关进行大规模平行微尺度反应的新知识，并为学生提供培训。该项目将推进大规模平行生物反应的研究和应用，为检测和诊断提供新的接触点，从而对我们应对COVID-19等大流行病的方式产生变革性影响。这项技术将使样品诊断的2分钟测试成为可能，每次检测的成本为2美元。研究者使用一种新的格式来加速热循环，同时实现大约100万倍的样品分配，以加速样品制备，而不需要微图案或微流体。他们将利用光学加热实现所需的大面积温度均匀性，同时利用限制横向扩散产生约1,000,000个虚拟反应井。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 project will provide the basis for a new test and diagnostic that can be performed in as little as 2 minutes and a cost as low as $2. This could be used routinely to test for hidden spreaders of disease at airports or entrances to hospitals or long-term care facilities. Availability of this diagnostic would be transformative. The speed and low cost could provide the first point-of-contact molecular tests diagnostic for diseases such as COVID-19. Two minutes and $2 is fast enough and inexpensive enough to perform such routine screening in airports to detect asymptomatic spreaders as they embark or disembark from airplanes. Thus, this tool could prevent such diseases from spreading beyond the initial outbreak. Similarly, the method could be used to screen employees when they arrive to work at hospitals, long-term care facilities, or prisons, and avoid the huge toll a disease such as COVID-19 is taking. Finally, the method could be used for routine screening at large facilities such as factories, food processing or distribution facilities, and large government buildings, allowing our economy to return to a more normal state. The research will also lead to new knowledge on performing massively-parallel microscale reactions and provide training for a student. This project will advance research and applications on massively-parallel bioreactions to enable a new point-of-contact for testing and diagnostic that will have a transformative impact on how we handle pandemics such as COVID-19. The technology will enable a 2-minute test for sample diagnostic at a cost of $2 per assay. The investigator uses a new format to speed thermal cycling while achieving approximately 1,000,000-fold sample partitioning to accelerate sample preparation without micro-patterning or microfluidics. They will achieve the required large area temperature uniformity using optical heating while simultaneously using confinement of lateral diffusion to produce ~1,000,000 virtual reaction wells.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.