Development of a generalizable toolkit for rapidly improving the sensitivity of fluorescent immunosensor proteins

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K14468
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 27040:Biofunction and bioprocess engineering-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Zhu Bo 東京工業大学, 科学技術創成研究院, 助教 (70886605)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: biosensor / uHTS / quenchbody / mRNA display / phage display

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, a toolkit for rapidly improving the performance of Quenchbody biosensors has been developed. It includes a biomolecular display-based ultra-high-throughput screening system, a cleavable fluorophore linker design for increasing the detection limit of the biosensor, and a reaction buffer with optimized crowding agents. Several Quenchbody biosensors, including the SARS-CoV-2 N protein biosensor, were optimized using this toolkit and rapidly reached a performance level suitable for the detection of analytes in practical applications. This toolkit, especially the uHTS screening method, will change the development process of Quenchbody biosensors or similar antibody conjugates, allowing the creation of biosensors in a timely manner under emergency circumstances in the future.

Free Research Field

高速分子進化

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

バイオセンサーおよび関連する均一系イムノアッセイは、診断や食品安全の分野において、ターゲットバイオ分子の迅速かつ高感度な検出において極めて重要な役割を果たしています。本研究では、Quenchbodyバイオセンサーの迅速な設計と開発のためのツールキットを開発しました。このツールキットは、従来の手法に比べて設計および最適化プロセスを大幅に効率化し、短時間でバイオセンサーを作成することを可能にします。これにより、将来的にパンデミックなどの緊急事態に迅速かつ効果的に対応できる社会の実現に寄与することが期待されます。