Abstract

Integrated Workflows For On-Chip RNA Extraction, Amplification and Detection For COVID-19 Screening in Resource-Limited Settings

Nicole Pamme, Professor in Analytical Chemistry, Stockholm University

Point-of-care testing for COVID-19 is critical to public health interventions, yet the current strategy of using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has resulted in far fewer tests being carried out in resource-limited settings; due to it being expensive, labour-, equipment- and skill-intensive. In collaboration with medical researchers in Kenya, we are investigating an on-chip approach which integrates RNA extraction based on Immiscible Filtration Assisted by Surface Tension (IFAST), Reverse Transcription - Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP), and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-associated nuclease (Cas)-based sensing for detection of genomic SARS-CoV-2 RNA.