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Published on April 27, 2020
Researchers are working around the clock, innovating ways to improve the COVID-19 testing process. Recently, a group of researchers from Yale University presented findings that suggest that one improvement could be made right at the beginning of the testing process—in the choice of the sample to be tested. Although the…
Published on April 24, 2020
Researchers headed by a team at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have developed what they claim is an inexpensive, sensitive smartphone-based device that can detect viral and bacterial pathogens in about 30 minutes, and could be adapted to test for SARS-CoV-2. The platform comprises a cartridge-housed microfluidic chip that carries…
Published on April 23, 2020
A clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by researchers at the University of Oxford will begin today in the U.K., the first trial of its kind in the country, said U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock in a recent press briefing. The U.K. government has pledged to support the…
Published on April 20, 2020
The unfortunate reality for most cancer patients is that they will face resistance to one or more chemotherapeutic agents prescribed to eliminate their disease. Even more problematic, once a patient’s tumor is resistant to one type of chemotherapy, it is much more likely to be resistant to other chemotherapies as…
Published on April 17, 2020
A new CRISPR-based antiviral strategy targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to effectively degrade RNA. The CRISPR-Cas13 approach called PAC-MAN (Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR in huMAN cells) also proved effective against H1N1 human influenza A, another coronavirus, in human lung epithelial cells. With these findings, the researchers from Stanford University who developed…
Published on April 13, 2020
The NIH has begun recruiting patients for a “serosurvey” study designed to quantify how many U.S. adults without a confirmed history of infection with SARS-CoV-2 have antibodies to the virus indicating prior infection. Researchers from four NIH institutes and centers plan to collect and analyze blood samples from up to…
Published on April 13, 2020
Shenzen, China-based genomics and proteomics company BGI and its collaborator Etopia have rolled out a mobile, inflatable P2 level biosafety laboratory it has dubbed the “Huo-Yan Air Lab.” The first lab was installed recently at the Shenzhen National GeneBank and was developed in response to the need for countries to rapidly…
Published on April 9, 2020
The results of research by University of British Columbia scientists suggest that giving up smoking could lessen the chance that an infection with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus will lead to severe COVID-19 disease. Their studies found that the lung cells of people who are current cigarette smokers, and individuals with chronic obstructive…
Published on April 7, 2020
An anti-parasitic drug that is available around the world stops SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from replicating in cells within a couple of days, according to findings from in vitro studies by Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), working with the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity. BDI research lead Kylie Wagstaff,…
Published on April 6, 2020
Molecular diagnostics and assay development company Luminex announced today that its ARIES SARS-CoV-2 Assay for rapid detection of the virus that causes COVID-19 has received and Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. According to the company, the test will run on its FDA-approved ARIES system an automated system that can…
Published on April 2, 2020
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a nanoparticle-based approach that allows the early diagnosis of lung cancer through a simple urine test. The approach detects biomarkers resulting from the interaction of protein-coated nanoparticles with disease-associated peptides in the tumor microenvironment. Experiments in two different mouse models of…
Published on March 26, 2020
Artificial intelligence-drive health technology company Sophia Genetics, has announced it is extending its partnership with next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay development company Paragon Genomics, to provide a COVID-19 test offering that combines Paragon Genomics’ CleanPlex SARS-CoV-2 NGS panel reagent kit for whole-genome sequencing of the coronavirus with the advanced analytical power…
Published on March 26, 2020
The holy grail of the current pandemic—a vaccine for COVID-19—will not be available next month. It may not even be ready by next year. Regardless, the strides being made are happening at unprecedented speed. One of the companies at the front of the pack is Moderna Therapeutics. Synbiobeta, the network…
Published on March 19, 2020
Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute say their genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and related viruses has found no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is the result of bioengineering in a lab. Rather, said Kristian Andersen, Ph.D., an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and corresponding author of the…
Published on March 18, 2020
The virus that causes COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019, stays “live” for several hours in aerosols, and for days on surfaces, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). These findings suggest that people may acquire the virus through the air and after touching contaminated objects. The…