Development of ultrasensitive electrochemical immunosensor for rapid point-of-care Covid-19 detection

虽然世卫组织最近宣布大流行结束“在望”，但很明显，随着新变种的不断出现，COVID-19将作为一种长期流行病持续存在。在大流行时期，除了疫苗接种，保护公众/个人健康的最有效方法是对病毒感染进行准确、大规模的检测，这需要高度敏感、快速和具有成本效益的检测工具。然而，目前使用的PCR技术（基于实验室的分子技术，准确但昂贵且耗时）或商业快速测试（灵敏度和再现性有限的比色免疫传感器）无法满足这些要求。这项NSERC联盟提案是西蒙弗雷泽大学余博士的研究团队和当地公司eSenso Biotech Inc.之间的合作项目的首字母缩写。用于开发能够满足上述要求的新型冠状病毒电化学免疫测定。我们将设计电化学免疫传感器，使用廉价的碳带制造良好控制的金纳米簇阵列作为工作电极，并验证DNA适体识别SARS-CoV-2病毒/抗原捕获在表面上。除了预期的放大传感信号外，将传感器转换为eSenso便携式设备（测试条和小型电化学测试仪）将产生一种负担得起的检测试剂盒，作为护理点Covid-19测试的常规工具。该项目的成功完成将发展SFU和eSenso之间的联系和促进关系，这将导致未来在检测与许多其他类型疾病相关的病原体方面的合作。该项目的实施还将为分析科学和生物医学工程领域的研究生和技术人员提供良好的研发培训基地。

While WHO recently announced that the end of pandemic is "in sight", it is evident that Covid-19 will persist as a long-term epidemic disease with the continuous appearance of new variants. During the pandemic era, besides vaccination the most efficient way to protect public/individual health is to carry out accurate, large-scale testing of the virus infection, which require highly sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective detection tools. However, these cannot be met by the currently used PCR technology (lab-based molecular technique that is accurate but costly and time consuming) or by commercial rapid tests (colorimetric immunosensors with limited sensitivity and reproducibility). This NSERC Alliance proposal initials a collaborative project between Dr. Yu's research team at Simon Fraser University and a local company, eSenso Biotech Inc. for the development of an electrochemical immunoassay for Covid-19 that can meet above mentioned requirements. We will design electrochemical immunosensors using inexpensive carbon tape to fabricate well-controlled arrays of gold nanoclusters as the working electrode, and validated DNA aptamers for recognizing SARS-CoV-2 virus/antigens captured on the surface. Besides the expected, amplified sensing signal, the translation of the sensors to the eSenso portable device (testing strips and miniaturized electrochemical tester) will lead to an affordable detection kit as a routine tool for point-of-care Covid-19 testing. Successful completion of this project will develop ties and foster relationship between SFU and eSenso that will lead to future collaborations for the detection of pathogens associated with many other types of diseases. The implementation of this project will also provide great R&D training ground for graduate students and technicians in the areas of analytical sciences and biomedical engineering.