[LINK] Off Topic: Breakthrough Monash Uni blood test detects COVID-19 results in 20 minutes

[Stephen Loosley]

Breakthrough blood test detects positive COVID-19 result in 20 minutes

https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/breakthrough-blood-test-detects-positive-covid-19-result-in-20-minutes
17 July 2020


World-first research, led by Monash University, has been able to identify positive COVID-19 cases using blood samples in approximately 20 minutes.

Researchers developed a simple assay based on commonly used blood typing infrastructure. Positive COVID-19 cases cause an agglutination or a clustering of red blood cells, which is easily identifiable.

This breakthrough can help governments and health experts with contact tracing to limit community spread.

More than 700 samples can be assessed each hour on high-grade diagnostic machines.

World-first research by Monash University in Australia has been able to detect positive COVID-19 cases using blood samples in about 20 minutes, and identify whether someone has contracted the virus.

In a discovery that could advance the worldwide effort to limit the community spread of COVID-19 through robust contact tracing, researchers were able to identify recent COVID-19 cases using 25 microlitres of plasma from blood samples.

The research team, led by BioPRIA and Monash University’s Chemical Engineering Department, including researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent BioNano Science and Technology (CBNS),developed a simple agglutination assay – an analysis to determine the presence and amount of a substance in blood – to detect the presence of antibodies raised in response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Positive COVID-19 cases caused an agglutination or a clustering of red blood cells, which was easily identifiable to the naked eye. Researchers were able to retrieve positive or negative readings in about 20 minutes.

While the current swab / PCR tests are used to identify people who are currently positive with COVID-19, the agglutination assay can determine whether someone had been recently infected once the infection is resolved – and could potentially be used to detect antibodies raised in response to vaccination to aid clinical trials.

Using a simple lab setup, this discovery could see medical practitioners across the world testing up to 200 blood samples an hour. At hospitals with high-grade diagnostic machines, more than 700 blood samples could be tested hourly – about 16,800 each day.

Study findings could help high-risk countries with population screening, case identification, contact tracing, confirming vaccine efficacy during clinical trials, and vaccine distribution.

This world-first research was published today (Friday 17 July 2020) in the prestigious journal ACS Sensors.

A patent for the innovation has been filed and researchers are seeking commercial and government support to upscale production.
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