BARDA’s Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) has selected Jumpcode as a partner to develop a next-generation sequencing assay to diagnose respiratory viruses, including new and emerging pathogens.

BARDA’s Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) has selected Jumpcode as a partner to develop a next-generation sequencing assay to diagnose respiratory viruses, including new and emerging pathogens. This technology could aid in detecting any pathogen on day one of a public health emergency, providing better preparation for future pandemics.

Jumpcode has partnered with BARDA to further develop our CRISPRclean^® technology that removes uninformative sequences from libraries with the aim to significantly increase the sensitivity of NGS-based pathogen diagnostic assays and identify and track any pathogen and  variant that arises.

The emergence of another respiratory virus with pandemic potential is highly likely, and public health and response communities will need comprehensive diagnostic tests to quickly detect the next novel pathogen in the very early stages. Currently, the standard practice of assessing symptoms and performing targeted testing for individual viruses is not often done until after a virus has begun to spread throughout a population. The work we’re doing with BARDA has the potential to change this by yielding faster diagnosis, categorization, and identification of new and emerging viruses.

“We are proud to partner with BARDA on this important work that aims to advance the U.S. government’s response to future public health emergencies. Our involvement in this program demonstrates the extraordinary capabilities and customizability of CRISPRclean technology to develop a high sensitivity universal infectious disease assay to help scientists detect novel viruses at an accelerated rate.” – Yaron Hakak, Ph.D., CEO of Jumpcode Genomics.