Validating a new lateral flow assay for COVID-19

The rapid spread of COVID-19, associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is of tremendous global concern. There is an urgent need to expand the current diagnosis capacity and to develop effective home-usable tests, and simple ones that can be used at the primary point-of-care. Ideally, the test will be simple enough that it could be performed by untrained personnel, yet also optimized to eliminate potential misuse and inaccurate measurements. An ideal test of this form would eliminate the current bottlenecks of personnel time, and the prof swabs or saliva or sputum, heat or chemical extraction, extraction kit shortages, and specialized machine with required bandwidth that is high and uncontrolled spread of the COVID-19. Lateral Flow Immunoassays (LFA), simple testing strips that employ a comprehensive collection of antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, might provide the needed functionality. However, proper validation is essential for reliability, as we can see with the failure rates of so many tests rushed to market. The team will determine the reproducibility of obtaining positive, and negative, results by LFA.

Faculty Supervisor:

John Trant

Student:

Bukola Aremu

Partner:

Audacia Bioscience

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Windsor