It was about a year ago that I highlighted here some neat graphene technology out of Cardea Biosciences, and in that context I mentioned CRISPR-based diagnostics. (If interested, you can find the post here.) The FDA recently approved under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Sherlock BioSciences’ SARS-CoV-2 Rapid diagnostic (FDA EUA page is here) and let’s … Read more
Research from a Washington State skilled nursing facility confirms over half did not show symptoms but are infecting others with SARS-CoV-2 In early March, this report in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) was the first outside-of-China, peer-reviewed publication that documents asymptomatic spread. In brief: an otherwise healthy Shanghai businesswoman visited Germany for company … Read more
Thorough research on nine infected individuals in Germany shows important details on the natural course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, infectivity from an infected individual, and ability to detect the RNA via rRT-PCR, live virus assay, and neutralizing antibody testing It was about five years ago, starting at a new employer SeraCare Life Sciences, that I first … Read more
One of the first serosurvey results from Santa Clara county in California reports 48,000 to 81,000 people infected, 50-fold to 85-fold more than the number of confirmed cases. Living through a pandemic while under lockdown order, with schools and routines and social events and music concerts and movie theaters and sports events all closed means … Read more
You will need to wear a mask for a while In this current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the US Nursing Home Association has rightly called the SARS-CoV-2 virus ‘almost the perfect killing machine‘ for elderly patients. Compared to SARS-CoV (aka ‘SARS Classic’ circa 2003), it is clear that SARS spread at the same … Read more
Using both traditional blood draw and an innovative home-collection device, the NIH recruits 1000 healthy volunteers nationwide The SARS-CoV-2 virus (otherwise known as coronavirus, the causative virus of COVID-19 disease currently rampaging worldwide) is a difficult pathogen to battle. While clearing out my bursting-at-the-seams ‘downloads’ folder on my computer this morning, I came across two … Read more
First preliminary results from widespread IgA/IgG SARS-CoV-2 resistance antibody testing in Heinsberg Germany Being an active research scientist or having a life science research background during a once-in-a-lifetime worldwide epidemic is a remarkable thing. Whether reading pre-prints on MedRxiv or looking into the latest news of the day or reading interesting links from a variety … Read more
The US FDA clears the first serology test for assessing infectious spread In many ways it is difficult to assess the passage of time while in a national shutdown. It was a little over a week ago that I wrote about the need for a good antibody test for SARS-CoV-2, in order to get decent … Read more
An organized resource list to check out Keeping track of the outbreak Coronavirus Tracked by the Financial Times. The source of those cool ‘Number of days since 10th death’ by country (to get a comparative picture of doubling rates, points at which lockdowns were initiated) as well as a table of charts detailing countries from … Read more
The FDA will release under EUA a good antibody test, but time is of the essence to get decent tracking and tracing in-place Without adequate testing for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that is now sweeping rapidly around the world, there can be no isolation of cases and the chain of infection will not be broken. … Read more
If the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin is confirmed by larger studies this actually could be “one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine” During this worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, now that states such as California and New York have enacted ‘stay at home’ orders, universities and many school systems have closed, and many … Read more