Nucleic acid biosensor system for point-of-care diagnostics
This technology is a transposition-based system for rapidly detecting target nucleic acid sequences that can be used for infectious diseases.
Unmet Need: Simple, rapid detection system of specific nucleic acid sequences
Current in vitro diagnostics for infectious diseases are time-consuming and costly, requiring centralized laboratories. While point-of-contact technologies improve accessibility, many approaches sacrifice sensitivity or require additional amplification steps and complex workflow. Nucleic-acid biosensors have emerged as promising point-of-care diagnostics; however, many remain limited by insufficient sensitivity, challenges with complex clinical samples and lack of availability for many major pathogens. Therefore, there is a need for simple, sensitive and rapidly adaptable diagnostic platforms capable of detecting diverse pathogens outside traditional laboratory environments.
The Technology: Transposition-based detection system for single-stranded RNA and double stranded DNA molecules
This technology is a programmable nucleic acid detection platform that uses a CRISPR RNA-guided Cas-transposase system to detect specific single-stranded RNA and double-stranded DNA sequences. The Fluid Enzymatic/Electronic Transposon-Based (FET) detector uses targeted transposition events to identify nucleic acid sequences and can be integrated with point-of-need FET Strip or an instrument-operated FET Multiplexor. Combined with colorimetric lateral flow assays or single-molecule field-effect transistors, this platform enables rapid and adaptable detection of targeted pathogens in diverse settings.
A prototype has been tested with adenovirus dsDNA and influenza ssRNA targets.
Applications:
- Point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases and pathogens
- Laboratory-based nucleic acid diagnostics
- Cancer-associated nucleic acid diagnostics
- Environmental biosurvelliance and monitoring
- Agriculture pathogen monitoring
- Public health and biosafety surveillance
- Sensitive contamination testing
Advantages:
- Increases sensitivity of nucleic acid detection
- Enables cost-effective detection workflows
- Provides rapid diagnostic results
- Detects both single-stranded RNA and double-stranded DNA molecules
- Rapidly adaptable for detection of emerging pathogens
Lead Inventor:
Patent Information:
Patent Pending (US 20230059683)
Related Publications:
Tech Ventures Reference:
IR CU20204
Licensing Contact: Cynthia Lang