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Researchers Develop a Fast, Accurate, Low-Cost COVID-19 Test

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-not-to-like? dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Researchers develop a fast, accurate, low-cost COVID-19 test:

A new low-cost diagnostic test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly delivers accurate results without the need for sophisticated equipment, according to a study published August 27 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Teng Xu of the Vision Medicals Center for Infectious Diseases, Tieying Hou of the Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Bing Gu of the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Jianwei Wang of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, and colleagues.

[...] In the new study, the researchers developed an alternative COVID-19 test by leveraging CRISPR-based technology, which has been widely used in recent years for gene editing. The assay, named CRISPR-COVID, enables high-throughput detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) -- the virus that causes COVID-19. CRISPR-COVID delivers comparable sensitivity and specificity as mNGS within as short as 40 minutes. When produced at a large scale, the material cost of a CRISPR-COVID test could be less than 70 cents, suggesting that CRISPR-COVID is a competitive alternative not only technologically but also financially.

Journal Reference:
Tieying Hou, Weiqi Zeng, Minling Yang, et al. Development and evaluation of a rapid CRISPR-based diagnostic for COVID-19, PLOS Pathogens (DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008705)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @08:49PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @08:49PM (#1043927)

    Does the paper have enough detail to reproduce their results?
    If so, then it could be made locally (where ever is local to you), screw these international supply lines that get all snarled in politics.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Troll=1, Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=3
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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @02:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @02:05AM (#1044040)

    Man, there are some weird mods out there, my q above is currently
                Troll=1, Insightful=1,
    Don't think I've ever managed that before...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @02:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @02:42PM (#1044179)

    How does gel electrophoresis work?

    With gel electrophoresis you use specific restriction enzymes to slice DNA and then use gel electrophoresis to create identifiable bands.

    This probably works in a similar matter. You use CRISPR to make specific slices and then you use something like gel electrophoresis to look for identifiable bands or some other DNA identification tool to identify the specific DNA strands you are looking for.