Engineering Enzymes to Transform Molecular Diagnostics

这个项目的重点是通过改造酶来实现一个高度创新的、无需仪器的分子诊断测试平台。新冠肺炎大流行凸显了传统方法检测呼吸道病毒的缺陷。虽然实验室的聚合酶链式反应(分子)检测表现出黄金标准的性能，但它们需要专门的设备和复杂的物流，这意味着无法及时获得结果来指导有效的治疗或隔离决定。相比之下，快速侧向流动测试既便宜又方便，但由于其固有的低灵敏度和可变性能而漏掉了许多感染病例。酶是每一种分子诊断测试的核心，但历史上很少有人努力为创新的产品形式量身定做它们的特性。工程生物学的最新进展现在提供了一个令人信服的机会来设计和设计具有所需性能的酶来实现根本的新的测试类别。该项目中设计的增强型酶将实现无仪器的分子测试，在类似于抗原测试的简单、快速、低成本的设备中实现实验室PCR准确性，结合了每种类型测试的优点。

This project is focussed on engineering enzymes to realise a highly innovative instrument-free molecular diagnostic testing platform.The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the flaws with conventional approaches to the detection of respiratory viruses. Whilst laboratory PCR (molecular) tests exhibit gold-standard performance they require specialist equipment and complex logistics meaning that results are not available in time to inform effective treatment or isolation decisions. In contrast, rapid lateral flow tests are cheap and convenient but miss many cases of infection due to their inherent low sensitivity and variable performance.Enzymes are at the heart of every molecular diagnostic test, yet historically little effort has been made to tailor their properties for innovative product formats. Recent advances in engineering biology now present a compelling opportunity to design and engineer enzymes with the required performance to realise fundamentally new classes of test.The enhanced enzymes engineered in this project will enable an instrument-free molecular test that achieves laboratory PCR accuracy in a simple, rapid, low-cost device analogous to an antigen test, combining the benefits of each type of test.