Fingerstick Blood Test for Quantitative Detection of Immunity Against COVID-19

Description

In Dec 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic affecting more than 200 countries and territories. Millions of people’s lives are affected as a result of mandatory quarantines, which hamstring the economies and cause panic. There is an emerging need of antibody test so individuals can aware their immune status when resuming work or evaluating vaccine efficacy. However, current antibody tests of are mostly based on lateral flow, which is insensitive and limited to only yes/no result. Here, we aim at developing a fingerstick blood test for quantitative detection of immunity against COVID-19. We will first develop a particle system where the serum antibody can connect magnetic microparticles (MMPs) and polymer microparticles (PMPs), forming MMPs-antibody-PMPs. Next, we will develop a microfluidic device containing a magnetic separator that removes the MMPs-antibody-PMPs, while free PMPs can continue flowing until being trapped at a particle dam. As such, the amount of antibody can be derived by PMP accumulation length, which is quantitative and much more sensitive (250-folds) than lateral flow method. With customized blood collector and optimized limit of detection (LOD) and compatibility, we will conduct field trial using patient’s serum sample for feasibility analysis as validation before commercialization and manufacturing.