Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY, United States of America.
Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 15;19(3):e0291158. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291158. eCollection 2024.
Fluorescence-based assays provide sensitive and adaptable methods for point of care testing, environmental monitoring, studies of protein abundance and activity, and a wide variety of additional applications. Currently, their utility in remote and low-resource environments is limited by the need for technically complicated or expensive instruments to read out fluorescence signal. Here we describe the Genes in Space Fluorescence Viewer (GiS Viewer), a portable, durable viewer for rapid molecular assay readout that can be used to visualize fluorescence in the red and green ranges. The GiS Viewer can be used to visualize any assay run in standard PCR tubes and contains a heating element. Results are visible by eye or can be imaged with a smartphone or tablet for downstream quantification. We demonstrate the capabilities of the GiS Viewer using two case studies-detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using RT-LAMP and quantification of drug-induced changes in gene expression via qRT-PCR on Earth and aboard the International Space Station. We show that the GiS Viewer provides a reliable method to visualize fluorescence in space without the need to return samples to Earth and can further be used to assess the results of RT-LAMP and qRT-PCR assays on Earth.
基于荧光的检测方法为即时检测、环境监测、蛋白质丰度和活性研究以及广泛的其他应用提供了灵敏和适应性强的方法。目前，由于需要技术复杂或昂贵的仪器来读取荧光信号，它们在偏远和资源匮乏环境中的应用受到限制。在这里，我们描述了“太空基因荧光检测仪”（Genes in Space Fluorescence Viewer，简称 GiS Viewer），这是一种用于快速分子检测读取的便携式、耐用的检测仪，可用于观察红色和绿色范围内的荧光。GiS Viewer 可用于可视化在标准 PCR 管中运行的任何检测，并包含加热元件。结果可以通过肉眼观察，也可以使用智能手机或平板电脑进行成像，以便进行下游定量。我们通过两个案例研究来演示 GiS Viewer 的功能，即使用 RT-LAMP 检测 SARS-CoV-2 RNA，以及在地球和国际空间站上通过 qRT-PCR 定量检测药物诱导的基因表达变化。我们表明，GiS Viewer 提供了一种无需将样品送回地球即可在太空中可视化荧光的可靠方法，并且可以进一步用于评估地球表面上 RT-LAMP 和 qRT-PCR 检测的结果。
