To contain the spread of infectious diseases, it is critical to quickly develop a rapid antigenic diagnostic tool. The cost should be low to allow widespread use, particularly in economically disadvantaged areas.
CALIXAR and AIT will develop a biosensing platform based on highly pure viral antigens as receptors and using patient serum as analyte. It is therefore more reliable avoiding false positives/negatives results, and cheaper.
The sensor platform is based on a combination of optical and electronic sensing methods that allows label-free real time detection of target analytes. It was developed by the Biosensor Technologies group of Prof. Wolfgang Knoll at the AIT (patent pending). This platform allows new insights into the mechanisms of complex biological processes that cannot be gained from optical or electronic techniques alone. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.9b11835
Firstly, we will use purified Chikungunya virus antigens developed by CALIXAR from recombinant cell systems. These antigens will be embedded in lipid architectures on the channel and/or gate of the transistor device to bind with validated synthetic antibodies and small molecules available on the market. Secondly, the sensor architecture could be expanded to diagnose emerging and wide spreading viral diseases.
This platform will be useful for diagnostic purposes as well as evaluating past infections and potentially screening for treatment methods and vaccines.
Contact details:
Jakob Andersson, Scientist at AIT ([email protected])
Emmanuel Dejean, CEO at CALIXAR ([email protected])
