Federally funded research advances science behind testing and serology

Federally funded research is advancing scientific understanding behind testing and serology, key components of pandemic response as the U.S. begins to reopen, according to a statement from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Federal support has been directed to testing research and development, serological studies, and efforts to develop vaccines and therapeutics.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Trump Administration has leveraged America’s science and technology enterprise to provide researchers and health care professionals with the knowledge and tools to fight this invisible enemy. Unprecedented government investment combined with the Trump Administration’s commitment to removing unnecessary administrative barriers is producing more accurate, cost effective, and scalable diagnostic and serology testing,” said OSTP Director Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier.

SEROLOGY AND ANTIBODY STUDIES

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Rockefeller University are working on research to better understand the immune system’s response to SARS-CoV-2 and develop medical countermeasures against COVID-19.


• NIH is using serosurveys and blood sampling to estimate how many U.S. adults without a confirmed history of SARS-CoV-2 infection have antibodies to the virus and to determine if serologic immunity is protective and if re-infection can occur.


• A cross-sectional, multi-site serosurveillance study, conducted by NIH is leveraging blood donations from Seattle, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Boston to estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 in asymptomatic blood.


• NIH and the University of California, Irvine’s study is testing a coronavirus antigen microarray containing different SARS-CoV-2 antigens to more accurately estimate the disease burden of COVID-19.


• A lab at the Scripps Research Institute, funded by NIH, is working to produce 3D molecular maps of the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 and human antibodies.

RAPID TESTING DEVELOPMENT

• NIH has launched a $1.5 billion effort from Federal COVID-19 relief funding for the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative to accelerate advanced diagnostic technologies quickly through the development pipeline toward commercialization and availability.


• The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst are working on a project that aims to develop "smart" sampling swabs to test the presence of SARS-CoV-2.


• Duke University and NSF are working on two projects. One, with the goal of developing a rapid and sensitive test that detects coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) for infection diagnosis and patient-derived antibodies for immunity assessment. The second, to use a single drop of blood or nose/throat sample to measure antigens, or the protein markers created by exposure to the virus, to determine presence of disease in only 30 minutes.


• NSF and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago are developing a novel biosensor for rapid, direct, and selective detection of COVID-19.


• New York University researchers, funded by NSF, are using fast, inexpensive optical techniques to detect the physical properties of viral pathogens instead of costly conventional diagnostic tests that require multiple processing steps by highly trained personnel.


• Texas A&M and NSF are facilitating widespread testing for COVID-19 while using fewer tests by pooling samples from multiple patients and performing tests on combined samples.