Bioluminescent detection of viral surface proteins using branched multivalent protein switches.

Fast and reliable virus diagnostics is key to prevent the spread of viruses in populations. A hallmark of viruses is the presence of multivalent surface proteins, a property that can be harnessed to control conformational switching in sensor proteins. Here, we introduce a new sensor platform (dark-LUX) for the detection of viral surface proteins consisting of a general bioluminescent framework that can be post-translationally functionalized with separately expressed binding domains.