Field portable Coliform Bacteria and Escherichia Coli RNA expression LAMP-OSD detection system

Fabrico Technology and Professor Andrew Ellington of the University of Texas at Austin, proposes to develop an in-field detection platform based on a novel variation of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). The proposed reaction works by utilizing a patent pending oligonucleotide strand displacing (OSD) probe which functions for LAMP in much the same way as a TaqMan probe functions for qPCR. This OSD innovation overcomes a major flaw in LAMP-only based diagnostics by greatly reducing the likelihood of producing false positives. The proposed LAMP-OSD device will distinguish between viable and non-viable coliform bacteria andE coli by comparing ratiometrically, the stable and short-lived RNA markers that degrade before and after bacteria death. LAMP-OSD allows for highly specific Yes/No answers with minimal processing time and complexities. A number of LAMP devices and assay form factors have been demonstrated but little to no work has been done using RNA markers to differentiate between viable from non-viable organisms into a LAMP-OSD device which is one of the key technical challenges and goals of this proposal effort.