CORONAVIRUS NEWS

HORIBA UK, Medical has published a white paper entitled ‘COVID-19 screening, prognosis and severity assessment with biomarkers for management of patients’. The paper provides a review of biomarkers that help in the assessment of COVID-19 severity.

Avacta Group has announced that the first Affimer-based rapid test strips to detect SARS-COV-2 spike protein have been evaluated by Avacta’s partners at Cytiva (formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences) and show positive initial performance data.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on research and diagnostic laboratories to process more samples more quickly. INTEGRA Biosciences offers a range of pipetting systems designed to speed up PCR-based screening workflows.

Ploughshare Innovations, a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) spin-out firm, has funded the development of a revolutionary test that has the potential to predict whether coronavirus patients will develop sepsis before symptoms appear.

Bio-Rad provides a wide range of products for use in the support of COVID-19 diagnosis and confirmation, and offers a suite of molecular testing tools including Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) systems and the SARS-CoV-2 ddPCR test kit.

Infectivity assays carried out by the Avacta Group in collaboration with the Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow show that the company’s Affimer reagents prevent infection of human cells by a SARS-CoV-2 model virus.

The Royal Society reports that every £1 invested in medical research delivers a return equivalent of around 25 pence every year, forever. Here, Katie Gray explains how UK laboratories are remaining productive during the lockdown.

A Danish pipetting robot is automating coronavirus testing processes in European hospitals. The robot, called flowbot ONE, significantly reduces the time it takes for laboratories to produce results for patients potentially infected with SARS-CoV-2.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to the development of novel RT-PCR-based tests to detect the virus. As the situation has progressed, serology tests are now needed to evaluate the immune response of patients, and assess immunity in the general public.

The ScheBo SARS-CoV-2 Quick is a combined immunochromatographic lateral-flow test for the simultaneous qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies in whole blood, serum or plasma, with test results after 15 minutes.

Beckman Coulter’s Access SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay is now available in markets accepting the CE mark. The company has shipped tests to more than 400 hospitals, clinics and laboratories in the USA, and has begun shipping to customers globally.

Oxford Immunotec has released the T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 test kit. This could make a significant contribution to development of a tool to manage the current pandemic, and help nations come out of lockdown faster, safer and in a controlled manner

An innovative method of monitoring treatment efficacy and recovery from COVID-19 has been unveiled by global diagnostics company Randox Laboratories. The test detects the presence of cytokines, and is performed on the company’s Biochip Technology.

PCR Biosystems has launched qPCRBIO Probe 1-Step Virus Detect, a high-concentration 4x RT-qPCR kit designed specifically for ultrasensitive, high-throughput detection of viral RNA sequences, including SARS-CoV-2.

It seems bizarre that at the time of writing, we are into the fourth month of a viral pandemic, and yet only one of many available disinfectant and hand sanitiser chemistries had been tested against SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Andrew Kemp explains.

The NHS has announced that heparin is to be trialled on critically-ill COVID-19 patients, putting more pressure on laboratories to set up new anti-Xa assay protocols. Stago UK is able to help remotely using its Connect.One data sharing middleware.

As scientists around the world race to understand more about SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 disease, they are gaining increasing amounts of information about the viral components that make up the infectious particles.

Black and south Asian ethnic groups in England appear to be at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19, as well as hospitalisation with the disease, according to new UK Biobank research.

The University of Glasgow and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) are supporting the University of Oxford’s SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccine trials in health and care staff. The collaboration is part of the University of Oxford’s Phase III of the trial, which involves assessing health and care staff living in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, who will be invited to take part in the trial if they are aged 18–55 years, healthy and have not been infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Effective and reliable solutions to detect SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed, and antibody-based serological assays are a sensitive way to diagnose infection. Dr Pei Liu (Senior Scientist, Antibody Department, GenScript) will lead a free webinar on 2 June 2020 (10.00 am EST [3.00 pm BST] and 1.00 pm EST [6.00 pm BST]). Click on this story to access the link to register.