SBIR Phase I: A Versatile Nucleic Acid Collection and Purification Technology for Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

SBIR 第一阶段：用于废水流行病学的多功能核酸收集和纯化技术

• 批准号: 2224172
• 负责人: Kyle King
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: FRONTLINE BIOTECHNOLOGIES INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224172&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Versatile; Nucleic; Acid

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to provide private and public stakeholders with new technological tools to better monitor and predict pandemics. This project is expected to modernize the tools used today by private and public laboratories to collect and purify pathogens, particularly human coronaviruses from community wastewater, for testing and diagnostic purposes. The new technological tools are expected to simplify the workflow, reduce costs and time, and enable the prediction of COVID-19 outbreaks and other pandemics several weeks before observing clinical cases. Such early prediction would provide the public and government agencies with important data and sufficient time to take preventive measures. The technological products of this project are expected to empower the growing number of companies and laboratories offering wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) services and help establish WBE as a routine, cost-effective and reliable tool for public health monitoring.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will address a major technological barrier for the detection of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Commercially available nucleic acid collection and purification kits are designed for clinical samples with small volumes. These kits are not generally used for large wastewater volumes where the virus is present at low concentrations. As a result, current processes are time-consuming, and result in the recovery of less than 30% of viruses and nucleic acids, significantly reducing the sensitivity. The goal of this SBIR Phase I project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel virus and nucleic acid collection and purification technology from wastewater. Specifically, the project tasks aim at enhancing understanding of virus properties, particularly human coronaviruses in wastewater and their interactions with filter media. The project’s innovative approach is to design a streamlined workflow that includes all the steps from sample collection to detection, in a single disposable cartridge containing novel filters with high affinity to viruses. This development is expected to enhance viral and nucleic acid recovery in wastewater to over 90%, while reducing costs. The developed tools will be independently tested and evaluated by third-party laboratories to confirm their performance.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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目的广播公司影响/商业潜力是为私人和公共利益相关者提供新的技术工具，以更好地监控和预测大流行。预计该项目将现代化私人和公共实验室当今使用的工具，以收集和净化病原体，尤其是来自社区废水的人类冠状病毒，以进行测试和诊断目的。预计新的技术工具将简化工作流程，减少成本和时间，并在观察临床病例之前几周对Covid-19-19爆发和其他流行音乐进行预测。这种早期预测将为公共和政府机构提供重要的数据和足够的时间来采取预防措施。预计该项目的技术产品将赋予提供基于废水的流行病学（WBE）服务的越来越多的公司和实验室，并有助于将WBE建立为公共卫生监测的日常，具有成本效益且可靠的工具。这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目项目将在诸如Sars-Cov-2中检测一个主要的技术障碍。市售的核酸收集和纯化试剂盒设计用于少量量的临床样品。这些试剂盒通常不适用于以低浓度存在病毒的大废水体积。结果，当前的过程是耗时的，导致少于30％的病毒和核酸恢复，从而显着降低了敏感性。该SBIR I期项目的目的是证明从废水中的新型病毒和核酸收集和纯化技术的可行性。具体而言，项目任务旨在增强对病毒特性的理解，尤其是废水中的人类冠状病毒及其与过滤介质的相互作用。该项目的创新方法是设计一个简化的工作流程，其中包括从样本收集到检测的所有步骤，在一个装有具有高亲和力的新型过滤器的单个处置墨盒中。预计这种发展将使废水中的病毒和核酸恢复提高到90％以上，同时降低成本。第三方实验室将对开发的工具进行独立测试和评估，以确认其绩效。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，通过评估来诚实地获得支持。