LFAnt Medical

Published purpose

LFAnt is developing two distinct proof-of-concept instrument-less colorimetric liquid assays for the rapid saliva-based detection of (1) the SARS-CoV-2 virus and (2) its associated antibodies. LFANT's colorimetric liquid assay technology is based on the salt-induced aggregation and change in colour of aptamer-shielded gold nanoparticle (AuNP) solutions in the presence of aptamer-specific molecular targets. This Project includes the development of both novel reagent and assay solutions for potential integration into a saliva collection and processing device being developed by the NRC to provide a sample-to-answer system capable of detecting SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 immune response, respectively, within 15 minutes using only a simple visual result readout.