Vedabio, Inc.

University of Illinois

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

Labsimply, Inc.

Anurup Ganguli

Ashish Pandey

Jacob Berger

Ariana Mostafa

Rashid Bashir

Andrew Garst

Swetha Murali

Farhad Kosari

Ravi Vijayendran

Ketki Sawant

Brian T Cunningham

George Vasmatzis

Joshua Miller

Hojeong Yu

Robert Plasschaert

Fu Sun

Weili Chen

Akid Ornob

Gregory Damhorst

Panagiotis Z Anastasiadis

Presented is a nucleic acid-guided nuclease cascade assay that can detect one or more target nucleic acids of interest of interest without the need for amplifying the target nucleic acids of interest. The nucleic acid-guided nuclease cascade assays utilize signal amplification mechanisms comprising various components including nucleic acid-guided nucleases and guide RNAs (gRNAs) forming ribonucleoprotein complexes, blocked primer molecules, template molecules, polymerases and reporter moieties.

Detection assays

The present disclosure relates to compositions of matter and assay methods used to detect one or more target nucleic acids of interest in a sample. The compositions and methods allow one to control reaction kinetics of the cascade assay by two orders of magnitude via molecular design of one of the reaction components; further, varying molecular design also allows for quantification of target nucleic acids of interest over a large range of concentrations or discriminating between extremely low copy numbers of target nucleic acids of interest.

Tuning cascade assay kinetics via molecular design

The present disclosure relates to compositions of matter and assay methods used to detect one or more target nucleic acids of interest in a sample. The compositions and methods provide signal boost upon detection of target nucleic acids of interest in less than one minute and in some instances instantaneously at ambient temperatures down to 16° C. or less, without amplification of the target nucleic acids yet allowing for massive multiplexing, high accuracy and minimal non-specific signal generation.

Signal boost cascade assay

The present disclosure relates to compositions of matter and methods used to activate effector nucleic acids and effector targets in vivo via a CRISPR-based cascade system. The compositions and methods achieve non-specific delivery of cascade system components to cells yet the cascade system works in a cell-specific manner.

Delivery of therapeutics in vivo via a CRISPR-based cascade system

The present disclosure relates to compositions of matter and assay methods used to detect one or more non-nucleic acid targets of interest in a sample. The compositions and methods provide signal boost upon detection of non-nucleic acid targets of interest in less than one minute and in some instances instantaneously at ambient temperatures down to 25° C. or less, allow for massive multiplexing, high accuracy, minimal non-specific signal generation, and are easily reprogrammable.

Detection of nucleic acid and non-nucleic acid target molecules

The present disclosure relates to variant engineered nucleic acid-guided nucleases that may be used in CRISPR-based cascade assay systems to detect one or more target nucleic acids in a sample. The variant nucleases comprise an activity such that double-stranded DNA substrates do not bind to or are not cleaved by variant LbCas12a nuclease, or bind to or are cleaved very slowly by the variant nuclease, however single-stranded DNA substrates can bind and are cleaved by the variant nuclease, and wherein the variant nuclease exhibits both cis- and trans-cleavage activity.

Engineered nucleic acid-guided nucleases

The present disclosure describes compositions of matter comprising a ribonucleoprotein complex comprising a nucleic acid-guided nuclease and a guide RNA, and further comprising a blocking nucleic acid molecule represented by Formula IV, wherein Formula IV in the 5′-to-3′ direction comprises: T-D-M-A-Lp-C; wherein T is 17-31 nucleotides in length; D is 0-15 nucleotides in length; M is 1-25 nucleotides in length; A is 0-15 nucleotides in length and comprises a sequence complementary to D; and L is 3-25 nucleotides in length; p is 0 or 1; C is 4-15 nucleotides in length and comprises a sequence complementary to T; and wherein the blocking nucleic acid molecule comprises a sequence complementary to a gRNA.

Compositions of matter for detection assays

The present disclosure describes compositions of matter comprising a ribonucleoprotein complex comprising a nucleic acid-guided nuclease and a guide RNA, and further comprising and a blocking nucleic acid molecule represented by Formula III in the 5′-to-3′ direction comprises: T-D-M-A-(B-L)-C; wherein T is 17-135 nucleotides in length; D is 0-10 nucleotides in length; M is 1-25 nucleotides in length or is absent, wherein if M is absent then T-D and A-(B-L)-C are separate nucleic acid strands; A is 0-15 nucleotides in length and comprises at least 50% sequence complementarity to D; B is 4-12 nucleotides in length and comprises at least 50% sequence complementarity to T; L is 3-25 nucleotides in length; J is an integer between 1 and 10; C is 4-15 nucleotides in length; and wherein the blocking nucleic acid molecule comprises a sequence complementary to a gRNA.

Provided are methods and related devices for preparing a cell and tissue culture, including a hanging drop culture. Microwells are specially loaded with cell mixtures using a removable reservoir and forcing cells into the underlying microwells. The removable reservoir is removed and the cells partitioned into the individual microwells and covered by an immiscible layer of fluid. The microwells and immiscible layer is inverted and the cells in the microwells cultured. The microwells may have shape-controlling elements to control the three-dimensional shape of the culture.

Growing community of inventors

Champaign, IL, United States of America

Anurup Ganguli