PFI (MCA): Integration of Protein Engineering and Electrochemical Biosensors for Virus Detection

About This Grant

This Partnerships for Innovation – Mid Career Advancement (PFI-MCA) project is focused on the development of a new, affordable technology to test for viruses with high accuracy. The project innovation is in the use of stable enzymes that can be stored at room temperature without requiring cold environments. The enzymes, combined with an electrochemical biosensor and microfluidics technology, will create a portable, affordable platform for virus detection in resource-limited environments. This technology can impact areas like health diagnostics, national security, and food safety. The research is multidisciplinary as it integrates chemistry, biology, and engineering. The project will give students hands-on experience in research scientific fields. The commercial impact of this technology will be important since it has potential to develop technology for virus detection that will be low cost and portable so it can be used anywhere and can supplement virus outbreak surveillance. This project will also translate the technology to manufacturing and commercialization. This project employs protein engineering to make stable enzymes that can be stored at room temperature without requiring cold environments. These enzymes are used to perform isothermal amplification of a virus fragment for posterior detection with electrochemical biosensors. By combining these two technologies, the project will develop a virus detection platform that works even in areas with limited resources, making it more accessible and cost-effective. The recent pandemic has shown the urgent need for affordable and quick virus detection methods. Currently, the most common virus detection method, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, is expensive, requires special equipment and trained staff, and is mostly available in large labs, which makes it hard to use in areas with limit resources. This project aims to develop a more affordable and practical solution by using protein engineering to create stable, cost-effective enzymes that can be used with Nucleic Acid Sequence-Based Amplification technique at a single temperature. The enzymes, combined with an electrochemical biosensor and microfluidics technology, will create a portable, affordable platform for virus detection in resource-limited environments. 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.