This technology is a high-throughput sequencing-based platform that can detect and characterize a wide range of viruses with improved sensitivity, reduced cost, and potential for novel virus discovery.
Early and accurate diagnosis of viral infections is critical for reducing the spread of disease, improving patient outcomes, and guiding appropriate public health interventions. Conventional diagnostic methods, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are highly specific but limited to detecting only known viruses. Additionally, identification, diagnosis, and discovery of viruses can be cumbersome and expensive, requiring constant innovations in clinical and research settings. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) can enable broad viral detection and discovery, but traditional approaches are costly, labor-intensive, and may lack sensitivity for low-abundance pathogens. Therefore, there is a need for a rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method to detect a broad spectrum of viruses, including emerging and previously unknown species.
This technology describes a high-throughput viral capture and sequencing platform, VirCapSeq-VERT, for detecting vertebrate-infecting viruses, including novel species. The platform comprises over two million oligonucleotide probes, designed to target members of 207 known viral taxa that infect vertebrates. It can detect viruses with up to 75% sequence similarity to those used in probe design, enabling broad pathogen discovery. The system enables solution-based capture of viral nucleic acids in complex clinical and environmental samples containing varying proportions of viral and host genetic material. Compared to conventional Illumina sequencing, it has demonstrated a 100-10,000-fold increase in viral reads while maintaining a limit of detection comparable to real-time PCR. This technology can greatly enhance the diagnosis, surveillance, and study of viral infections, providing a rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective tool for clinical, public health, and research applications.
Patent Pending (US20210071172)
IR CU18221, CU18200, CU16058
Licensing Contact: Kristin Neuman