ASU has made 2,000 new coronavirus test kits, using robots for faster results [View all]

[Bayard]

Arizona State University said it is ready to start implementing high-speed coronavirus testing this week using robots. The university has also begun to manufacture additional test kits to help with current test kit shortages.

ASU said it has made about 2,000 kits already and expects to make about 1,000 a day in the coming weeks. Joshua LaBaer, director of ASU's Biodesign Institute, said the university plans to distribute the kits to local health care providers. ASU hopes to be able to provide testing for local health care providers as well as first responders or other people with essential jobs, he said.

“We've identified a number of key partnership organizations that that have personnel who are critical to the community, people who are first responders or, you know, work on infrastructure projects that we all rely upon,” LaBaer said.

The goal is to use testing to keep doctors, nurses and other first responders free of the disease so they can continue to care for others safely.

The university said it has already tested the kits and determined that the process works. The efforts have been boosted by a $2 million grant to the university for testing and test kit manufacturing.

"We're at the point where we're ready to start running samples for people and help get results out there," LaBaer said.
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The ASU lab would use specialized robots to process samples, allowing it to provide results at a faster rate than state and hospital labs, where tests are typically processed by hand. The robots can read results for many samples at the same time, potentially allowing ASU to complete hundreds of samples a day.

At this point, LaBaer declined to say which hospitals or organizations the university was working with to start testing workers, but said that those plans should be finalized this week.

ASU originally hoped to have testing ready last week, but LaBaer said the university had to clear regulatory hurdles and navigate supply shortages to manufacture kits and start testing. One of those hurdles included getting the laboratory certified to meet federal regulations for clinical diagnostic testing.

Normally, the university uses research-grade chemical ingredients, or reagents, for their laboratory tests. Those research-grade supplies are not meant to be used in clinical tests.

"We can't use them here. Here we need to be using clinical grade reagents that have been tested and come with a certificate of assurance attached to them," LaBaer said. "The supplies to run the reactions are not cheap."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2020/03/30/arizona-state-university-ready-high-speed-covid-19-testing-using-robots/5086850002/