For Science Geeks -- Cooking Up a COVID Test

ThatOwlWoman

ThatOwlWoman

Leftist Vermin
This guy may very well solve our test kit shortage. Interesting read and great science reporting.
~~~

Just before the SARS epidemic, DeRisi had created a new computer chip, which he called the Virochip. It allowed him, in effect, to take the DNA from a sick person and sort the human genetic material from whatever wasn’t human — say a virus. “The game is to separate you from everything else,” he said. In 2003, few knew about DeRisi’s new tool, and it never occurred to the public health authorities to consult him. “We literally had to beg the CDC to send us a sample of the virus,” DeRisi recalls.

Eventually he got his hands on a sample, and presented it to the Virochip. It read SARS as one part cow coronavirus, one part bird coronavirus and one part human coronavirus — in other words, it did not match any known virus. “It was like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle from three different puzzles,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t fit together.” He sequenced the virus’s genome — and that’s what allowed others to figure out that it, like the new coronavirus, had come from a bat. “No one had ever seen bat coronaviruses,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t exist. We should have paid more attention the first time.”

More at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...biohub-is-ready-for-coronavirus-tests-to-come
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
This guy may very well solve our test kit shortage. Interesting read and great science reporting.
~~~

Just before the SARS epidemic, DeRisi had created a new computer chip, which he called the Virochip. It allowed him, in effect, to take the DNA from a sick person and sort the human genetic material from whatever wasn’t human — say a virus. “The game is to separate you from everything else,” he said. In 2003, few knew about DeRisi’s new tool, and it never occurred to the public health authorities to consult him. “We literally had to beg the CDC to send us a sample of the virus,” DeRisi recalls.

Eventually he got his hands on a sample, and presented it to the Virochip. It read SARS as one part cow coronavirus, one part bird coronavirus and one part human coronavirus — in other words, it did not match any known virus. “It was like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle from three different puzzles,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t fit together.” He sequenced the virus’s genome — and that’s what allowed others to figure out that it, like the new coronavirus, had come from a bat. “No one had ever seen bat coronaviruses,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t exist. We should have paid more attention the first time.”

More at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...biohub-is-ready-for-coronavirus-tests-to-come
Click to expand...

With scientists across the globe focused on this disease, it wouldn't surprise me to see some major leaps in medical technology come out of it. I hope that thing works!
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
This guy may very well solve our test kit shortage. Interesting read and great science reporting.
~~~

Just before the SARS epidemic, DeRisi had created a new computer chip, which he called the Virochip. It allowed him, in effect, to take the DNA from a sick person and sort the human genetic material from whatever wasn’t human — say a virus. “The game is to separate you from everything else,” he said. In 2003, few knew about DeRisi’s new tool, and it never occurred to the public health authorities to consult him. “We literally had to beg the CDC to send us a sample of the virus,” DeRisi recalls.

Eventually he got his hands on a sample, and presented it to the Virochip. It read SARS as one part cow coronavirus, one part bird coronavirus and one part human coronavirus — in other words, it did not match any known virus. “It was like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle from three different puzzles,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t fit together.” He sequenced the virus’s genome — and that’s what allowed others to figure out that it, like the new coronavirus, had come from a bat. “No one had ever seen bat coronaviruses,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t exist. We should have paid more attention the first time.”

More at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...biohub-is-ready-for-coronavirus-tests-to-come
Click to expand...

Well the problem isn’t having an effective test. The problem is making many millions of them and dustributing them efficiently. There’s already standard ELISA immunoassay strip test kits available. Just not in the numbers needed and those are far easier to produce than a microchip.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Well the problem isn’t having an effective test. The problem is making many millions of them and dustributing them efficiently. There’s already standard ELISA immunoassay strip test kits available. Just not in the numbers needed and those are far easier to produce than a microchip.
Click to expand...

The lab in the article can do 2500+ tests per day that are ready in hours, not days. What is hamstringing them now is lack of swabs.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
The lab in the article can do 2500+ tests per day that are ready in hours, not days. What is hamstringing them now is lack of swabs.
Click to expand...

How many labs do they have? They 5,000? That’s approximately how many they would need? Immunoassay strips can be produced in the millions easily. Distributing them when and where they are needed in the required number is the hard part.

I’m not sure if you know what immunoassay strips are but the most common type you’re probably familiar with are pregnancy test, which work on the same principle. Quick, easy, fast and reliable not to mention far cheaper than instrumental analysis.

Still it’s the same problem, the kits are easy enough to produce. It’s a matter of getting a couple of million kits to LA county at the start of an outbreak Thats the problem.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
This guy may very well solve our test kit shortage. Interesting read and great science reporting.
~~~

Just before the SARS epidemic, DeRisi had created a new computer chip, which he called the Virochip. It allowed him, in effect, to take the DNA from a sick person and sort the human genetic material from whatever wasn’t human — say a virus. “The game is to separate you from everything else,” he said. In 2003, few knew about DeRisi’s new tool, and it never occurred to the public health authorities to consult him. “We literally had to beg the CDC to send us a sample of the virus,” DeRisi recalls.

Eventually he got his hands on a sample, and presented it to the Virochip. It read SARS as one part cow coronavirus, one part bird coronavirus and one part human coronavirus — in other words, it did not match any known virus. “It was like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle from three different puzzles,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t fit together.” He sequenced the virus’s genome — and that’s what allowed others to figure out that it, like the new coronavirus, had come from a bat. “No one had ever seen bat coronaviruses,” DeRisi says. “They didn’t exist. We should have paid more attention the first time.”

More at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...biohub-is-ready-for-coronavirus-tests-to-come
Click to expand...
Yep. Great read. As per usual, our systems use inferior labs because 'that's what we've always done'.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
How many labs do they have? They 5,000? That’s approximately how many they would need? Immunoassay strips can be produced in the millions easily. Distributing them when and where they are needed in the required number is the hard part.

I’m not sure if you know what immunoassay strips are but the most common type you’re probably familiar with are pregnancy test, which work on the same principle. Quick, easy, fast and reliable not to mention far cheaper than instrumental analysis.

Still it’s the same problem, the kits are easy enough to produce. It’s a matter of getting a couple of million kits to LA county at the start of an outbreak Thats the problem.
Click to expand...

We use similar things for the influenza and strep throat tests.

Our conservative friends seem strangely reluctant to address the horrible lack of testing. But lo! The CDC fucked up in the beginning so now we can blame it all on them.
 
Althea said:
Yep. Great read. As per usual, our systems use inferior labs because 'that's what we've always done'.
Click to expand...

Private labs. Because privatizing everything is Good. Public ownership of things like large-scale testing labs is Bad.

Interesting that Fuckerberg funded this R&D. Well, it was his wife's idea.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Private labs. Because privatizing everything is Good. Public ownership of things like large-scale testing labs is Bad.

Interesting that Fuckerberg funded this R&D. Well, it was his wife's idea.
Click to expand...
Private...read...for profit. They aren't working around the clock to solve the problem.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
How many labs do they have? They 5,000? That’s approximately how many they would need? Immunoassay strips can be produced in the millions easily. Distributing them when and where they are needed in the required number is the hard part.

I’m not sure if you know what immunoassay strips are but the most common type you’re probably familiar with are pregnancy test, which work on the same principle. Quick, easy, fast and reliable not to mention far cheaper than instrumental analysis.

Still it’s the same problem, the kits are easy enough to produce. It’s a matter of getting a couple of million kits to LA county at the start of an outbreak Thats the problem.
Click to expand...
Probably would have been a great idea to get off the golf course, and start the process in January?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
We use similar things for the influenza and strep throat tests.

Our conservative friends seem strangely reluctant to address the horrible lack of testing. But lo! The CDC fucked up in the beginning so now we can blame it all on them.
Click to expand...
This really isn’t a time to fix the blame. We need to fix the problem of being able to produce, sample and process 500,000 tests per day.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
This really isn’t a time to fix the blame. We need to fix the problem of being able to produce, sample and process 500,000 tests per day.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the lack of clarity -- I was channeling the typical RWNJ's take on the CDC and that it's to blame.

Agree with the rest of your statement. But which testing? Diagnostic or antibodies? Both?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Sorry for the lack of clarity -- I was channeling the typical RWNJ's take on the CDC and that it's to blame.

Agree with the rest of your statement. But which testing? Diagnostic or antibodies? Both?
Click to expand...

Uhhh testing for antibodies is a sign diagnostic.

So is testing for the viral DNA/RNA.

Be that as it may....diagnostic test exist. It’s the process to test millions of people quickly and accurately that needs fixed.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Well the problem isn’t having an effective test. The problem is making many millions of them and dustributing them efficiently. There’s already standard ELISA immunoassay strip test kits available. Just not in the numbers needed and those are far easier to produce than a microchip.
Click to expand...

What is amazing, is we have more guns in America, than we have Americans, yet our president is not even wanting to ensure we can all be tested so that we can save as many lives as we can.
 
Geeko Sportivo said:
What is amazing, is we have more guns in America, than we have Americans, yet our president is not even wanting to ensure we can all be tested so that we can save as many lives as we can.
Click to expand...

What does gun ownership have to do with this China virus? What makes you say our president "is not even wanting to ensure we can all be tested? Who's ass are you trying to blow smoke up?
 
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