Bilkent University National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM) Faculty Member Asst. Prof. Urartu Şeker and his team published an article entitled “A Genetically Engineered Biofilm Material for SARS-CoV-2 Capturing and Isolation”. The article was published on the cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces, one of the leading scientific journals in top-level interdisciplinary research, particularly in the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, and life sciences.
The study was conducted with a focus on infection detection strategies, especially for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Accordingly, a complex system with a CsgA scaffold harboring the affinity of Griffithsin (GRFT) against the Spike protein was successfully developed to capture and isolate the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study also found that the hybrid recombinant protein can significantly increase the sensitivity of the currently available lateral flow assays for Sars-CoV-2 diagnoses.
You can access the study at the following link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.202201126
