Rapid Molecular Diagnostics For New&Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern-Protecting Vaccine Efficacy

Despite the successful development of several efficacious vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten the UK and global populations. Whilst vaccinations efforts have been hugely successful and provide the basis to facilitate opening up of society and a return to normality, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants capable of evading the immune response endanger the efficacy of the vaccination strategy. To preserve the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in the UK population, aggressive and rapid surveillance for known and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoCs) is required. Rapid and specific molecular diagnostics can provide speed and coverage advantages compared to genomic sequencing alone, benefitting the public health response to facilitate containment. In this project, we expand our recently developed SARS-CoV-2 variant-specific detection technology to allow rapid discrimination of variants of concern. This approach can be implemented directly and immediately on positive samples in the pipelines of large testing facilities or developed for Point of Care (PoC) use. This technology will complement the current genomic sequencing efforts that allow identification of new and existing VoCs and facilitate lineage tracking, with rapid molecular diagnostics able to assist the public health response by identifying key variants without the delay and sub-sampling associated with genomic sequencing, therefore allowing a rapid and agile response to aid breaking chains of transmission and facilitate containment before widespread community transmission occurs.