Overview

• LUCAS combines luciferase and beta-galactosidase in a novel cascade to produce 500-fold stronger and eight-fold longer-lasting light emissions than predecessor assays.
• In tests on over 300 viral-spiked patient and serum samples, including SARS-CoV-2, HIV, HBV and HCV, the sensor delivered results in under 23 minutes.
• The assay achieved an overall diagnostic accuracy exceeding 94% across all tested pathogens.
• Designed for portability and ease of use, LUCAS can operate in both high- and low-resource point-of-care settings.
• Upcoming studies will assess its performance in additional biological fluids and explore simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens.