Team:Purdue/Description

Purdue iGEM Page

Project Description

COVID-19: Why Purdue iGEM joined the fight

 COVID-19 is a disease strain that evolved from a family of viruses called the coronavirus. Its resulting highly infectious respiratory illness was the result of a pandemic. Like many individuals all over the world, the team members of Purdue iGEM were personally affected by the aftermath. One of our own members worked on the frontlines as an EMT, another could not return to their home country for over 3 months, many members lost their jobs or internships and others struggled to care for their sick loved ones remotely. Our personal stories, the stories of others, and the 4.91M individuals as of October 21st, 2021 who died from the disease are the reason we, Purdue iGEM, masked up and joined the fight against COVID-19.

How Testing Can Mitigate The Spread of The Disease

 In order to stop the spread, many companies since January have been working on developing rapid diagnostic tests for contact tracing and preventing the spread of the disease. The virus is present in infected patients in saliva and in the sputum in the form of RNA. Current tests developed are the antibody test and the molecular biology-based PCR saliva and nasal swab tests. The majority of the available tests were rushed to the market for mass production due to governmental pressure and the need for rapid testing. As a result, current tests have compromised detection accuracy. UC Davis conducted an analysis regarding the current false-negative rates of RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2. According to the model used they calculated the false-negative rates between 2% to 29% indicating up to 29% of patients could have a false negative result. The test runtimes also vary between 1-14 days.

Our Proposed Solution: cArgo

In an effort to provide accurate, non-invasive, affordable, and rapid Point of Care(POC) diagnostic tests for COVID-19 and other emerging pandemics, Purdue iGEM is working on a 2 year diagnostic device called cArgo: a COVID-19 Argonaute mediated microfluidic diagnostic device.

The Science Embedded in the Chip:

  1. Patient saliva is inputted into the microfluidic chip
  2. RNA from the saliva is extracted by an embedded chitosan capillary
  3. RNA is converted to DNA and amplified producing double stranded DNA (dsDNA) via RT-RPA
  4. Argonaute that has been incubated with DNA guides cut the dsDNA to generate single stranded DNA (ssDNA)
  5. The ssDNA fragments bind to molecular beacon
  6. Fluorescence is emitted and quantified via spectrophotometer
  7. The result is outputted on a smartphone compatible app.

See the video below for a visual demonstration of how the test works:

Future Applications:

As the pandemic slows down, and technology against COVID-19 develops, cArgo may not seem marketable, However, cArgo is a nucleic acid based diagnostic test, so it can be adapted for many different pathogens. It is not limited to COVID-19 specifically. As the project develops, we hope to implement cArgo so diagnostic tests can be more accessible, accommodating, and affordable to the community.

References

coronavirus.dc.gov/page/what-covid-19

www.orissapost.com/covid-19-global-total-tops-42-million-death-toll-surges-past-1-14-million

blog.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/labbestpractice/index.php/2020/08/17/challenges-and-implications-of-false-negative-covid-19-testing

www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/coronavirus-testing-basics