The Collaboration Spotlight highlights interdisciplinary research happening on our campus, fostered and funded by the Jump ARCHES endowment at the Health Care Engineering Systems Center. The Jump ARCHES endowment was instrumental in providing research dollars to scientists at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to provide support as we move through the mass vaccination and mitigation phase.
Two Requests for Proposals were announced over the past year: one immediately after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, and one that focused on impending post-pandemic challenges in early Spring 2021. A total of 24 grants sharing $1.2 million dollars of funding were awarded between these two calls. Investigators belonged to nearly all colleges on our campus as well as OSF HealthCare, UIC, University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center, and privately-owned companies.
This month, we’re highlighting the project “A rapid and affordable virus test for early warning of a pandemic,” led by Joseph Irudayaraj, Founder Professor in the department of Bioengineering at U of I. Wen Ren of the department of Bioengineering and William Bond of Jump Simulation and Education Center in Peoria are also co-investigators. This project aimed to develop a test kit that extracts nucleic acid sequences from a sample of blood or saliva, which is amplified by primers and new technology that can look for biomarkers of COVID-19 using colorimetry. Using this method, detection with the naked eye is possible. The ultimate goal is to develop a test kit for home use that costs no more than $5.
HCESC: How did the idea for your Jump ARCHES grant project come about?
JI: Since Jump ARCHES is a healthcare center – being nimble is an excellent strategy. Jump Arches has always been on the cutting edge of research catering to the needs of the community health care. Our research thrust synergized with JA and it was an excellent fit.
HCESC: What is the effect that Jump ARCHES and ARCHES funding has had on your research direction?
JI: We filed a disclosure and we applied for an NIH RADX funding program (we did not receive it). A manuscript will be set out for publication soon. We are expanding the concept to standardize the technology.
HCESC: How do you see your project and Jump ARCHES affecting our society post-COVID?
JI: We most certainly see our project affecting our society post-COVID; our goal was to develop a technology that is most sensitive than any of the existing technologies in the market.
HCESC: Have you worked with students on your project during this time? What has that experience been like?
JI: Yes, a postdoctoral associate was involved in this work. It has been both educational and pioneering.
HCESC: What are your future plans with this research?
JI: We will continue to develop and validate the technology as we believe that this can be put to practice. With adequate testing of patient samples, we will be able to apply for FDA approval. We expect that we will be able to do this in the future as we believe that ours will be one of the most sensitive lateral flow systems in the market.
Thank you, Professor Irudayaraj! Learn more about Professor Irudayaraj’s lab and research here.
Read more about the Jump ARCHES COVID-19 funded projects here and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for the next installment of our ARCHES spotlight delivered to your inbox!