Virus Counter: Rapid and Sensitive Diagnostics Based on Digital Detection of Individual Pathogens

Abstract Text:

The breakneck spread of 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has exposed the soft underbelly of modern infectious disease diagnostics – a system highly reliant on PCR-based diagnosis. In this pandemic, the system has been rapidly overwhelmed, as it was in the 2009 pandemic flu and the 2014-6 Ebola outbreak. Other approaches for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, including lateral flow assays (LFA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) will provide some relief, but the sensitivity of LFA and ELISA tests is limited, especially at low viral loads at the early stages of the infection when detection is the most crucial for stopping community spread. To help diversify the approaches that can be used to sensitively detect SARS-CoV-2 and improve response resilience, we will pivot an established virus detection system that has already shown the ability to detect viruses such as Ebola and Marburg viruses and develop a focused assay for SARS-CoV-2. In parallel, we will prototype rapidly scalable sensor chips and an automated reader to allow us to deploy a rapid and sensitive POC viral diagnostics assays based on a simple interferometric reflectance imaging sensor (IRIS) platform. The multiplexed and configurable assays using robust universal DNA functionalized sensor chips, proposed diagnostic can be performed in the presence of influenza. A patient with flu-like symptoms can be diagnosed with flu or COVID-19, or both as feared that these infections can occur concurrently. We will also prototype a high-throughput system that tests samples directly in microwell plates to run 2,000 tests/day per instrument.