Published on: 2026-09-09
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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The Polytechnic University received a grant from the Russian Science Foundation for the development of a domestic platform for detecting infectious diseases. The university became the winner of the competition for targeted and applied scientific research, conducted by the RSF within the framework of the federal project “Scientific and Technological Support for the Development of the Bioeconomy” of the national project “Technological Support of the Bioeconomy”.
The scientific team of SPbPU includes: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, director of the Research Complex “Nanobiotechnologies” at the Institute of Biomedical Systems and Biotechnologies (project leader), Anatoly Arseniev, research associate at the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, Alexandra Vasilyeva, lead engineer at the Shared Facility Center “Analytical Center for Nano- and Biotechnologies,” associate professor at the Higher School of Biotechnology and Food Production, and research associate at the Laboratory of Molecular
Scientists will create a base for the production of Russian enzymes for molecular tests, including components that copy the genetic material of the pathogen and recognize specific fragments of DNA or RNA. Currently, some of these reagents are purchased from abroad, and their cost and availability affect the production of diagnostic systems.
The basis of the future test system is a combination of isothermal amplification and CRISPR-Cas. The first method increases the amount of genetic material at a constant temperature, while the second recognizes a sequence characteristic of a specific pathogen. The analysis is intended to be conducted at 37–45 °C without the use of complex equipment, with results obtained in no more than 40 minutes.
The team will produce a one-step lyophilized kit with dried and stabilized reagents. They can be stored for a long time and dissolved into a working solution before the study. The kit will be compatible with mobile devices and can be used outside equipped laboratories.
The work will cover the full cycle of creating a diagnostic solution: developing genetic constructs for protein production, selecting production conditions, purification, stabilization, and quality control of components. Then the prototype will be tested on synthetic and clinical samples, comparing its analytical characteristics with real-time PCR.
As a model pathogen, the researchers chose Mycoplasma pneumoniae — a bacterium that causes respiratory infections. In the future, the platform is expected to be adapted for detecting other pathogens, tumor markers, signs of antibiotic resistance, and genetic mutations.
A reliable diagnostic system requires not only a method for detecting genetic material but also in-house production of protein components, a stable set of reagents, and verification of their characteristics on clinical samples. In the project, all these tasks are combined into a single technological chain, which will become the foundation for domestic solutions in molecular diagnostics, explains the project leader Natalia Morozova.
The qualified customer of the technological proposal is the company “Sintol.” The project implementation period is 2026–2028. The funding volume in the first year will amount to 15 million rubles.
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