I-Corps: Translation Potential of a Point-of-care System for Fast Multiplexed Detection of Pathogens

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is the development of portable, cost-effective, and rapid point of care tests for infectious diseases in animals. Currently the food animal market relies mostly on central laboratories for their diagnostic needs. The most common concerns faced by the stakeholders in the food animal market are diagnostic time and the cost of the tests, limiting the number and the frequency of tests that could be performed for regulation of animal health. A magnetic particle spectroscopy-based diagnostic platform can enable rapid detection of pathogen(s) at the farm. Such pathogen detection is essential for the efficient implementation of control strategies that curtail disease outbreaks in animal production systems. In addition, the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens in a single test, enabled by the new detection capabilities would further aid in reducing the time of intervention, effort, and cost of production for farmers dealing with these diseases. This assay can be readily modified for the detection of different diseases, enabling the platform to be utilized for the diagnosis of both human as well as animal diseases. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. This solution is based on the development of rapid diagnostic tests built upon magnetic particle spectroscopy. the magnetic particle spectroscopic assay utilizes antibody- or ligand-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles for the detection of biomarkers of interest. As the biological matrices are non-magnetic / weakly diamagnetic, magnetic particle spectroscopy has an advantage over other commonly used optical or fluorescence-based detection methods in reducing the signal to noise ratio. Thus, the magnetic particle spectroscopy-based assay is highly accurate, and capable of delivering multiplexed test results. The diagnostic feasibility of this assay was tested using influenza A virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The portability of the detection device coupled with a smartphone interface will allow testing in remote areas and under field settings, such as on a farm or in a production system. By transmitting test results collected from distant locations to centrally located data analysis units, remotely located veterinarians can receive real-time epidemiological data. This data would also significantly reduce the costs of monitoring infections at the regional level. 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.