Adapting to the Coronavirus Pandemic: Building and Incorporating a Diagnostic Pipeline in a Shared Resource Laboratory

Abstract

AT the beginning of February 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK gathered pace and it seemed highly probable that the United Kingdom would follow similar lockdown restriction policies seen in other European countries. The Crick's Flow Cytometry Science Technology Platform (Flow STP) helped prepare scientists to finish current experiments and store experimental material during lockdown to enable an efficient restart upon the eventual lifting of the restrictions. During this time safety measures were introduced into the Flow STP, including social distancing, that directly reduced the number of instruments available for use. When lockdown was announced in the United Kingdom on the 23rd March 2020 the total number of staff allowed into the Crick was reduced to a core group of key workers. The Flow STP was given key worker status and operated to provide flow cytometry to Crick scientists whose sole focus was now COVID-19. In the lead-up to lockdown communications were sent to scientists to highlight the possible implications of the pandemic on Flow STP operation. There were significant changes in the way the Flow STP operated due to the challenges faced outlined in Table 1. In early May 2020 the Crick prepared to support testing during the pandemic by establishing the Crick COVID-19 Consortium that successfully developed a diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) pipeline (1,2). The Flow STP was engaged to support COVID-19 research at the Crick, helping to develop novel flow cytometry assays utilizing SARS-CoV-2 virus-specific proteins. The STP was tasked with building a new clinical diagnostic lab and running a novel enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that had been developed for detecting antibodies against the S1 spike of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The key processes required are outlined in Figure 1.

How Shared Resource Laboratories have risen and adapted to the challenges of a global pandemic

“…This has meant that not only has routine work often been put on hold or slowed, but equipment and research had to be repurposed in a short time. Russell et al describe how a diagnostic pipeline was developed within a research SRL, allowing a rapid serology test to be carried out in an SRL environment (5).…”

Adoption of innovative strategies to mitigate supply chain disruption: COVID-19 pandemic

“…However, this epidemic's international cost might depend on the spread of COVID-19 in the world and on the required duration of quarantine and lockdown policies. At present, the COVID-19 pandemic is identified as a significant driver of adoption of green practices (Tiong et al 2021 ), redesigning and re-imaging of SC (Sharma et al 2020a ), adoption of new technology (Shin and Kang 2020 ), international cost (Sharma et al 2020b ) and implementation of lockdown SOPs (Russell et al 2021 ). The pandemic has affected countries' economies and societies and postures a significant challenge to every industry's sustainable supply chains across the world (Golan et al 2020 ).…”