Validation of a rapid, saliva-based, and ultra-sensitive SARS-CoV-2 screening system for a pandemic-scale infection surveillance

Abstract

Without any realistic prospect of comprehensive global vaccine coverage and lasting immunity, control of pandemics such as COVID-19 will require implementation of large scale, rapid identification and isolation of infectious individuals to limit further transmission. Here, we describe an automated, high-throughput testing instrument, designed for population-scale testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA within 25 minutes from inactivated saliva to result, and capable of reporting 3,840 results per hour. This integrated screening platform incorporates continuous flow loading of samples at random intervals to cost-effectively adjust for fluctuations in testing demand. Protecting vulnerable populations during global pandemics requires rapid and sensitive infection surveillance of asymptomatic carriers. This “Sentinel” surveillance system offers a feasible and scalable approach to complement vaccination, to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants and future pandemics to save lives.One-Sentence SummaryDevelopment of an automated continuous flow, random access SARS-CoV-2 screening platform with sufficient speed, throughput, and sensitivity to enable pandemic-scale surveillance and isolation of infectious individuals.

Saliva-based microfluidic point-of-care diagnostic

“…The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2-induced COVID-19 has demonstrated how rapidly a new pathogen can spread from a single city outbreak to global scale pandemic, that devastated the healthcare sector [1][2][3][4]. While acute coronavirus disease is predominantly detected using nasal swab samples coupled with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection of viral genetic material.…”