Four Biotechnology students founded Scope Biosciences in early 2019. Now they have nearly finished developing a fast Covid-19 test.
The Wageningen students had just finished competing in the international iGEM competition for biotechnology students. ‘That’s where we got to know each other better and learned a lot about diagnostics and entrepreneurship,’ says founder Niek Savelkoul.
Now the Wageningen spin-off has developed a fast Covid-19 test based on CRISPR-Cas. ‘CRISPR is based on an immune system that recognizes and cuts up viruses very precisely,’ Savelkoul says. ‘We have developed a subtype that uses fluorescence to indicate whether a virus or bacterium is present.’ As well as coronaviruses, the test can be used to identify other health threats such as Campylobacter bacteria in chicken.
This CRISPR technique uses fluorescence to indicate whether a virus or bacterium is present.
Scope Biosciences is currently doing validation tests and Savelkoul hopes to be able to apply the technique in six months’ time.
Wageningen’s ‘Mr CRISPR-Cas’, John van der Oost, is advising the company, which is currently doing all its laboratory work at Van der Oost’s Microbiology chair group. Co-founder Jurre Steens is completing a microbiology PhD on the characteristics of Scope’s CRISPR-Cas system. The spin-off’s offices are in the Plus Ultra II StartHub.
There are about 100 companies on campus. We’ll be introducing one of them to you in each issue of Resource. This time: Scope Biosciences in the Plus Ultra II StartHub.