The NIRVANA field-test kit
Salk Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte , who helped develop the new test , called NIRVANA , says it does not require expensive infrastructure , like other approaches . “ We can accomplish with one portable test the same thing that others are using two or three different tests , with different machines , to do .”
Today , the standard approach to learning whether a nasal swab is positive for COVID-19 is to run a polymerase chain reaction ( PCR ) test to detect genetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 virus . If the sample is negative , however , patients and clinicians do not get any information on what might be causing the COVID-like symptoms - unless they run separate PCR tests for other viruses , using different swab samples . And if the sample is positive for SARS-CoV-2 , they do not learn which COVID-19 variant a patient is infected with , unless another set of tests is run , which requires a large and expensive gene-sequencing machine .
In 2020 , Mo Li , an assistant professor of bioscience at KAUST , pondered how his expertise in genetic engineering and sequencing could help combat COVID-19 . Li , who previously spent six years as a Salk postdoctoral researcher in the Izpisua Belmonte lab , wondered whether a genedetection approach called isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification ( RPA ) coupled with real-time sequencing might be more useful - and faster , cheaper and more portable - than the current COVID-19 testing approach . He teamed up with Izpisua Belmonte to find out .
Unlike PCR , which cycles through lower and higher temperatures to separate DNA strands and copy them , RPA uses proteins - rather than temperature changes - to accomplish the same thing in only 20 minutes . The technology lets researchers copy longer stretches of DNA , and probe for multiple genes at the same time . The duo developed a small , portable device that can screen 96 samples at a time using the RPA assay . They call the method NIRVANA , for “ Nanopore sequencing of Isothermal Rapid Viral Amplification for Near real-time Analysis .”
They designed NIRVANA to simultaneously test samples for COVID-19 , influenza A , human adenovirus , and non-SARS-CoV-2 human coronavirus . In just 15 minutes , the device begins to report positive and negative results . And within three hours , the highly accurate device finalizes results on all 96 samples - including the sequences of five regions of SARS-CoV-2 that are particularly prone to accumulate mutations leading to new variants such as the B . 1.1.7 variant identified in the UK . Izpisua Belmonte says market analysis will be required to determine the cost of commercialization . The test is the latest advance in Salk ’ s efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic with innovative research projects on immunity , vaccine development , viral imaging and more .
Every cure has a starting point . The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk ’ s mission to dare to make dreams into reality . Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life , seeking new understandings in neuroscience , genetics , immunology , plant biology and more . The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark : small by choice , intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge . Be it cancer or Alzheimer ’ s , aging or diabetes , Salk is where cures begin .
Learn more at : www . salk . edu .
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