MIT News August 6, 2021
A team of researchers in the US (Harvard University, MIT, Boston Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deconus Hospital, Mass General Hospital) has developed a low-cost, self-contained, POC diagnostic called miSHERLOCK (minimally instrumented SHERLOCK) that is capable of concurrent universal detection of SARS-CoV-2 as well as specific detection of the B.1.1.7, B.1.351, or P.1 variants. The miSHERLOCK platform integrates an optimized one-pot SHERLOCK reaction with an RNA paper-capture method compatible with in situ nucleic acid amplification and Cas detection. miSHERLOCK combines instrument-free, built-in sample preparation from saliva, room temperature stable reagents, battery-powered incubation, and simple visual and mobile phone–enabled output interpretation with a limit of detection (LOD) that matches U.S. CDC reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays for SARS-CoV-2 of 1000 copies (cp)/ml. They have demonstrated that the diagnostic is just as accurate as the PCR tests now used. It can be assembled for about $15, but those costs could come down significantly if the devices were produced at large scale, the researchers say…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Overall miSHERLOCK workflow and SARS-CoV-2 target regions. Credit: Science Advances 06 Aug 2021, Vol. 7, no. 32, eabh2944Â