NEWS & TECHNOLOGY COVID-19
Microfluidic MEMS aid rapid Covid-19 sequencing
PBy Peter Clarke rocess development and chip production foundry Sky-
Water Technology Inc. (Bloomington, Minnesota) is supplying
microfluidic MEMS to MGI Tech Co. Ltd. (Shenzhen,
China) for use in Covid-19 testing and research.
MGI, is part of the BGI Group, the world’s leading supplier
of genomic sequencing services, also based in Shenzhen.
Sequencing technology is critical to identifying
mutations of viruses and tracking the spread of infections
through a population. Under emergency measures
introduced to address the Covid-19 pandemic China’s
National Medical Products Administration has approved
the use of MGI’s DNBSEQ-T7 high-throughput DNA
sequencing system for Covid-19 applications.
The DNBSEQ-T7, which started shipping in 2019, has
been described as a life science supercomputer. The
DNBSEQ-T7 is the highest throughput DNA sequencer
yet developed. It is the first four-chip sequencing platform
capable of generating 6Tbytes of data per day, and completing
up to 60 whole human genomes per day. The coronavirus
genome is based on RNA rather than DNA but the DNBSEQ-T7
can be used for sequencing-based Covid-19 detection and
identification of potential anti-viral agents and vaccines. MGI
has a manufacturing plant in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the
Covid-19 outbreak, where MGI developed its NMPA-approved
DNBSEQ-T7 sequencing systems. Skywater said
it has been working for MGI for several years and
has supplied microfluidic MEMS flowcells to its
parent BGI. This component is now the basis for
one of the consumbles in the sequencing kit for
the DNBSEQ-T7 system.
MGI is also providing automated sample
preparation systems to labs to increase capacity
and support widespread and rapid testing in the
US, SkyWater said. SkyWater is certified to the
ISO 13485 quality standard for medical devices
to support the design, development and fabrication of DNA
sequencing and other biochip applications in a wide range of
emerging biomedical market segments.
Five minute Coronavirus test gets fast track
UBy Nick Flaherty S medical giant Abbott has received
emergency authorisation for a Coronavirus
test that it says gives a result in just five
minutes.
The Coronavirus test runs on Abbott’s portable
ID NOW test system that is already used in
a range of healthcare settings, from urgent care
clinics to hospital emergency departments.
The molecular test, which provides a positive
result for Covid-19 in five minutes and a negative result in 13
minutes, received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However the company
highlights this is not FDA cleared or approved. It can be used
by authorized laboratories and patient care settings, but only
for the detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, not for any
other viruses or pathogens.
The test system uses a custom version of
a technique called isothermal nucleic acid
amplification to detect whether a patient
is infected. This is faster than the more
established polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
that takes small amounts of the virus and
amplifies it until there’s enough for detection.
Up until now, PCR tests have taken over 24
hours, but automated lab systems are rolling out that can take
2.5 hours, A five minute test on a portable system dramatically
increases testing capacity. Abbott is scaling up production at its
US site to reach capacity for 1 million PCR tests a month, and
between two platforms it proposes, Abbott expects to produce
about 5 million tests per month by the end of April.
Fraunhofer launches ventilator design challenge
GBy Nick Flaherty erman research institute Fraunhofer is
looking for ground-breaking ideas on how
to develop a feasible and digitally distributable
blueprint for emergency ventilation equipment
such as a non-invasive ventilator and consumables
like respiratory masks, valves or oxygen tanks.
The aim of the ‘Give a Breath’ challenge is to
enable immediate, decentralised production using
global 3D printing or other rapid manufacturing
capabilities. Applications are open now, and the
best designs will go through to a second phase
at the end of this week. Final designs will be chosen on 9th
April and launched the following day. The equipment to be
developed should only be used in states of emergency for the
decentralised treatment of non-intensive
care Covid-19 patients, in order to reduce
demand for hospitalisation. The selected
digital blueprints will be provided to governments
and states around the world to
enable them to start decentralised largescale
production wherever it is needed
the most. This follows a UK challenge
launched some weeks ago that has led to
production of two existing ventilator designs.
Medtronic in Ireland has also made
one of its older ventilator designs and code open source, and
the University of Marburg developed an open source ventilator:
https://give-a-breath-challenge.innosabi.com/
18 News April 2020 @eeNewsEurope www.eenewseurope.com
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