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.
