HighSenseCoV2

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus strain 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an illness that may be mild/asymptomatic or also cause fever, pneumonia, and death. Fighting COVID-19 requires understanding SARS-CoV-2 spread in the population. Accurate and sensitive point of care antibody tests are needed, to identify those who are (or have been) infected from those that are not, follow immune responses, and increase testing capacity. Lateral flow tests (LFT), such as the well-known “pregnancy pen urine test”, are in high demand. Having such capacity to detect SARS-COV-2 infection within minutes, with minimum preparation, is the goal. LFT can be rapidly manufactured to detect infection-specific antibodies (and/or the virus) in the blood. However, current LFT reveals low sensitivity when compared with other classical immunoassays. A technological boost is required to overcome that issue. DART technology consists of a polymer that serves as an anchor point with multiple hooks, to which, on one side, classical immunoassays (including lateral flow test) can be connected to, in a simple plug-and-play manner, while on the other side, multiple copies of desired reporter molecules are plugged to. Thus, allowing diagnostics at lower concentrations, and, so, lower viral amounts than via other methods.