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idw - Informationsdienst
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Dr. Krishna Gupta received the 2025 Doctoral Thesis Award from the Association of Supporters of the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (IPF). The award recognizes his dissertation “Developing programmable DNA-based reaction cascades and devices for point-of-care nucleic-acid testing”, supervised by Dr. Elisha Krieg at the IPF and defended in 2024 at the Technische Universität Dresden.
Nucleic acid-based diagnostics are essential for detecting infectious diseases. While gold-standard methods such as PCR offer high sensitivity, they rely on complex laboratory infrastructure and are therefore limited in decentralized or resource-constrained settings. Simpler alternatives, such as rapid antigen tests, are scalable and easy to use but often lack reliability. Bridging this gap requires diagnostic systems that combine PCR-level performance with the simplicity of point-of-care solutions.
Dr. Gupta addressed this gap by introducing modular design principles across molecular assays and diagnostic devices, streamlining workflows and improving implementation efficiency. Using standardized, interchangeable components, his approach facilitates deployment and enables rapid adaptation to emerging pathogens.
A key outcome of his work is Y-Switch, a modular isothermal diagnostic system based on programmable DNA reaction cascades. It can be rapidly reconfigured by exchanging pathogen-specific sequences, significantly reducing development time and cost. The system demonstrates a high degree of modularity in DNA-based diagnostics—allowing components to be recombined without redesigning the entire system—and provides a foundation for molecular computation systems.
In addition, Dr. Gupta significantly contributed to the development of VirChip, a microfluidic platform that integrates multiple assays on a single chip, enabling the simultaneous detection of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and RSV. The system achieves PCR-like sensitivity directly from clinical samples in a simple, user-friendly workflow suitable for decentralized healthcare settings.
Together, these advances contribute to more accessible nucleic acid testing. By integrating molecular design with device engineering, Dr. Gupta’s research provides a scalable framework for next-generation diagnostics, with applications in global health, epidemic surveillance, and decentralized testing.
Dr. Krishna Gupta, gupta@ipfdd.de
Gupta K, Krieg E. Y-switch: a spring-loaded synthetic gene switch for robust DNA/RNA signal amplification and detection. Nucleic Acids Res. 2024;52(17):e80-e80. doi:10.1093/nar/gkae680
Berzina B#, Gupta K#, et al. Multiplexed detection of respiratory viral pathogens by isothermal amplification on an autonomously loaded chip at the point-of-care. Lab Chip. 2025;25(23):6324-6334. doi:10.1039/D5LC00509D
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