Thermally Responsive Alkane Partitions and a Magnetofluidic Assay for Point-of-Sample Detection of Viruses in Wastewater

Detecting, identifying, and tracking genetic material in wastewater allows public health agencies to accurately monitor the spread of infectious diseases in communities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, viral diagnostics for wastewater have been used to track the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses and have allowed public health officials to make more informed decisions regarding public safety. However, due to the cost and complexity of viral RNA/DNA detection platforms, analysis is limited to sophisticated laboratory facilities, which limits deployment and delays results. In contrast, a low-cost rapid point-of-sample solution for the detection of viruses in wastewater would enable worldwide deployment with immediate analytical results. We have recently reported the development of thermally responsive alkane partitions (TRAPs) for automated magnetofluidic assays, enabling sample-to-answer point-of-care detection of viruses in complex samples. Here we demonstrate the use of TRAPs in combination with hydrogel-coated magnetic particles for virus purification and assay automation to enable detection of SARS-CoV-2 from spiked wastewater samples in a low-cost cassette within a handheld instrument. Using this system, we show distinguishable detection of SARS-CoV-2 below 200 copies/mL in wastewater.