35 SPECIAL SECTION: SMART HEALTH
DELIVERING BETTER COVID-19 DIAGNOSTICS KAUST-funded research initiative develops all-in-one COVID-19 testing kit Testing, quarantine measures and vaccinations against COVID-19 are likely here to stay. Even as inoculation programs are being rolled out across much of Europe, the Middle East and North America, it is expected that the disease will remain a challenge in the years to come. Cases are high across many parts of the developing world, and public health experts have warned that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will eventually become endemic, meaning that it will continue to circulate in pockets of populations around the world for years to come. Influenza and the four human coronaviruses that cause common colds are also endemic, but acquired immunity and seasonal flu vaccines have rendered them manageable. Scientists still do not know if SARS-CoV-2 will follow the same path or if it will remain as deadly as it was in 2020 and 2021. As such, tracking its evolution and the emergence of new variants is key. So too is continuing to develop more effective, efficient and affordable testing methods. KAUST-backed research has yielded one of the most dynamic all-in-one testing solutions to date. In 2020 Mo Li, an Assistant Professor of Bioscience at KAUST, was brainstorming ways to leverage his genetic engineering expertise to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Li wondered whether a gene detection and sequencing approach called recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) might be more useful – as well as faster, cheaper and more portable – than the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach commonly used for testing. He partnered with Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Roger Guillemin Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Professor at the Gene Expression Laboratory, to find out. PCR tests are the standard method to detect genetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. If the sample is negative, however, patients and clinicians do not receive information on what may be causing the COVID-19-like symptoms. To do so, they must run separate PCR tests using different swab samples. Moreover, if the sample tests positive for COVID-19, it is unclear which variant is present. Another round of testing must be conducted, and this requires a large, expensive, next-generation gene-sequencing machine, which may not be available in all locations.
MO LI Assistant Professor of Bioscience
THE DESIGN OF THIS TEST IS REALLY FLEXIBLE, SO IT IS NOT JUST LIMITED TO THE EXAMPLES WE HAVE SHOWN. WE CAN EASILY ADAPT IT TO TACKLE ANOTHER PATHOGEN, EVEN SOMETHING NEW AND EMERGENT.
