University of Oregon researchers and graduate students discussed their work with a Norman-based company to develop a faster COVID-19 testing process during a Zoom news conference Wednesday afternoon.
OU associate professor of microbiology Bradley Stevenson and OU graduate student Emily Junkins said their team is working with IMMY, a company that manufactures, sells and distributes infectious disease tests, to use liquid-handling robots to extract the viral genetic material needed for COVID-19 testing. He said the robots would be able to extract material from swab samples, which could then be tested for coronavirus.
Each robot will be able to take about 96 samples at a time, which would increase coronavirus detection rates tenfold, Stevenson said. He said his team has ordered two robots and they should arrive at IMMY by Friday.
Stevenson said his team is not the only one trying to use liquid-handling robots for coronavirus testing, and his team has acquired the robots through Opentrons, an open source platform for liquid-handling robots. He said Opentrons has a community of scientists who use and develop robots, and they share robots and programming widely.
Stevenson said robots ordered from IMMY are much cheaper than similar models, costing about $10,000 each.
Stevenson's team also shared their protocol for extracting genetic material, as well as the problems they encountered.
"We're working with industry and government, and it's going to be really interesting to see how quickly it develops," Stevenson said.
Stevenson said his team studies microbes in different environments, so they can do a lot of the molecular biology work needed for coronavirus testing. He said IMMY President and CEO Sean Bauman contacted him and asked if Stevenson's team could provide IMMY with testing resources.
"Once any kit is on the approved list, it's impossible to get more because everyone in the world is now getting this test," Stevenson said.
To address the lack of testing supplies, Stevenson said he and IMMY scientists began using magnetic beads they made in the lab to extract genetic material instead of the manual columns typically used.
"I realized that we just have enough beads in the lab to do about 10,000 tests, and if we develop the (extraction) protocol, or find one that we can use and make it work, then IMMY will be protected from supply chain issues. impact," Stevenson said.
Typically, to detect infectious diseases, researchers isolate certain parts of the cells in each sample and push those parts through a membrane, Stevenson said. The genetic material needed for the test binds to the membrane, and the researchers wash away the unwanted parts of the cell.
Stevenson, whose team has been replacing membranes with magnetic beads, says the genetic material binds better to the beads than to the membrane. Beads work better when using liquid-handling robots, he said, because they can't pick up tubes as easily as humans.
Stevenson said he and Jenkins have spent the past week working on developing extraction protocols using beads and making them more efficient so they can use liquid-handling robots. He also said 85 other employees are helping his team.
Stevenson said this new development is critical to help increase testing capacity and better allocate resources across the state.
"If someone is sick in the hospital — and you don't know if they're sick — they're wasting (personal protective equipment). ... It's really valuable material," Stevenson said. "If you can be sure they don't have COVID-19, you can treat them differently and get them out of that situation."
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