Developing the next coronavirus test
Start innovating – Dr Sourav Ghosh and his PhD student Praveen Kumar Kaveri are currently addressing the limitations of the current coronavirus tests by developing a new and improved test which provides accurate and rapid results.
Loughborough University’s Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, supported by Public Health England, Nottingham University Hospitals, and the University of Nottingham, is developing a new and improved coronavirus test, which can deliver results within a few minutes at the point of care, using saliva rather than throat and nose swabs.
The project
COVID-19 has impacted all of our lives over the last year or so. Whilst the availability of testing has come a long way since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr Sourav Ghosh, Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Engineering and Principal Investigator of this project, explains the limitations with the tests for reliable adoption in the community.
The RT-PCR test, which is the current clinical gold standard, is expensive, requires specialised laboratory and trained technician, and can take up to a few days to return the results during a busy period. The lateral flow tests, which have been taken up in the UK for swab testing in the community, are relatively quick and easy to use, giving results within half an hour to an hour. However, in a lot of cases, their inadequate sensitivity and user-to-user variability in swabbing makes them unreliable for use in low-skilled community settings.
This research is about the development of a Rapid, Easy to use and Affordable Diagnostic test for COVID-19 (READ-COVID-19), which can be reliably self-performed in the community without any personal protective equipment. The user will just need to add their saliva sample into a test tube, which will be scanned using a handheld fluorescence reader to deliver results within five minutes. The results will be electronic and can be automatically synced with the NHS Test and Trace system. The aim is to deliver an accuracy that is at least as good as that of the RT-PCR test at a faster turnaround time and ease of use than the lateral flow tests without the need to perform the rather uncomfortable and challenging nose and throat swabs.
The technology
The test works on the principle of optical fluorescence. When the test solution is excited with light of higher energy (lower wavelength), the solution emits light of lower energy (higher wavelength) in presence of the target species.
Dr Sourav Ghosh is being supported in this project by Praveen Kumar Kaveri, Research Associate.
Traditional tests applying optical fluorescence typically involve multiple steps of sample processing for target capture and detection. I developed a single-step fluorescence method for rapid detection of bacteria and antimicrobial resistance during my PhD. I was co-supervised by Dr Guido Bolognesi and Dr Goran Vladisavljevic from Loughborough’s Chemical Engineering Department for the implementation of this method on a microfluidic platform.
Dr Sourav Ghosh expands,
Since our single-step fluorescence method was successful in five minute detection of bacteria from biological samples, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit us last year, we wanted to explore this method for coronavirus detection with an aim to address the need for a reliable, rapid and easy to use community test.
Funding
Last year, the team received £20,000 as proof-of-concept funding from Loughborough University’s Enterprise Project Group (EPG), which aims to accelerate the creation of social, cultural and economic impact through research-informed knowledge exchange.
Their successful feasibility was highly commended by the Department of Health and Social Care for its novelty and promise as a community-based coronavirus test and attracted commercial interests. This led to a second round of funding of £117,000 for test optimisation and clinical trials.
Loughborough’s technology development team is strongly supported by Public Health England, who have provided cultured SARS-CoV-2 virus samples of key current variants, Nottingham University Hospitals, who are providing COVID-19 patient samples, and University of Nottingham, who are conducting the trial with these patient samples in their Category 3 lab at Sutton Bonington. Dr Jonathan Ball's lab at the University of Nottingham is performing RT-qPCR on these samples to establish a benchmark with the current clinical gold standard.
The future
With a successful clinical trial, the aim for the team is to work together with one of the interested commercial partners to bring the test into the market.
Although mortality rates are going down after vaccinations, the infection is anticipated to be around for years to come. In view of this and the fact that the economy is now gradually reopening, the Government recognises the need for improved COVID-19 tests from private manufacturers that can supplement and support the NHS Test and Trace system for business and home. We believe that our READ-COVID-19 test, with its current evidence of accuracy, speed and cost, should be well-placed to address this need.
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