Ultrasensitive Point-of-Care Diagnostics of Viral Biomarkers and Infectious Diseases

Project Summary Linking infectious agent diagnostics to clinical decision making at the point of care requires a fast highly sensitive and simple to use method that takes into account the infrastructure and workflow in clinical settings of both developing and developed regions In addition being able to distinguish among multiple potential infectious pathogens in a single test is of great importance as many pathogens cause similar symptoms The goal of this phase I proposal is to develop and validate a highly sensitive biosensor diagnostic platform allowing naked eye detection of viral antigens at pM concentration in human serum Our initial focus will be on antigens from hemorrhagic fever viruses including Ebola and Dengue that are classified as Category A NIAID priority pathogens The proposed diagnostic platform integrates three key features i high efficiency capture and isolation of biomarkers ii surface enrichment on sensing surfaces and iii label free naked eye detection at low concentrations The sensitivity of the nanohole sensor is based on two important scientific discoveries i Extraordinary Light Transmission EOT effect and ii highly dispersive plasmonic Fano resonances that eliminates the need for powered operated light sources or optical detectors Recombinant viral proteins spiked in commercially available human serum will be used to evaluate the sensitivity specificity and reliability of this diagnostic platform At the end of this phase I grant a working nanophotonic prototype will provide the basis for advancing this novel viral diagnostic platform for phase II development Narrative Sensitive fast reliable user friendly and equipment free point of care diagnostic s is needed to differentially diagnose among various viral and non viral infectious diseases for better patient management and the initiation of proper treatment regime in a timely manner