Sherlock Biosciences Receives Grant to Advance Development of Power-free Diagnostics

Technology Developed with Support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will Enable Testing in Remote Low- and Middle-income Environments, Expanding Healthcare Access and Improving Global Health    

WATERTOWN, Mass., Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sherlock Biosciences, a company engineering biology to bring next-generation diagnostics to the point of need, today announced that it has received additional funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance its rapid, instrument-free molecular diagnostic testing platform.

Funding from the foundation has supported platform advancements that are addressing critical gaps in current solutions including the need for portable, disposable, low-cost diagnostic tests that can be deployed in low-resource environments.    

"We are deeply grateful for the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as we seek to disrupt diagnostics by providing accurate, actionable information wherever and whenever it is needed," said Bryan Dechairo, president and CEO of Sherlock Biosciences. "In addition to the development of chemistries for expanding our assay menu, the funding will support integration of all functions with a model system on a prototype device, a critical milestone to making these powerful diagnostic products accessible to people at the point of need."

Sherlock's novel CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection method enables highly accurate and low-cost detection of DNA and RNA. The objectives of this project are to leverage many of the innovations enabled by the foundation's support, while advancing non-instrumented execution and interpretation of the assay. The resulting platform for molecular diagnostics will have increased specificity and sensitivity for multiplexed detection of multiple infectious disease targets from a single patient sample. For low- and middle-income countries that may not have access to large centralized testing facilities, this solution represents a powerful addition to global testing capacity.

"We founded Sherlock Biosciences with a commitment to leveraging the power of disruptive molecular diagnostics to improve global health," said David Walt, Ph.D., co-founder and board member of Sherlock Biosciences. "The continued support by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a testament to the importance of this mission and our belief that driving access to accurate, low-cost molecular diagnostics in low-resource areas has the potential to transform lives."

Sherlock Biosciences is developing products that will empower people to access answers and have more control over their health decisions. Through our engineering biology tools, CRISPR-based SHERLOCK™ and synthetic biology-based INSPECTR™, we are bringing together the accuracy of PCR with the convenience and simplicity of antigen tests for molecular diagnostics at the point-of-need. SHERLOCK and INSPECTR can be used in virtually any setting without complex instrumentation, making it well suited for use in the home and in low resource settings, opening up a wide range of potential applications in areas including infectious disease, early detection of cancer, treatment monitoring, and precision medicine. In 2020 the company made history with the first FDA-authorized use of CRISPR technology. For more information, please visit www.sherlock.bio.

Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE Sherlock Biosciences