Joana Reis de Andrade, Edward Scourfield, Shilpa Lekhraj Peswani-Sajnani, Kate Poulton, Thomas Ap Rees, Paniz Khooshemehri, George Doherty, Stephanie Ong, Iustina-Francisca Ivan, Negin Goudarzi, Isaac Gardiner, Estelle Caine, Thomas J A Maguire, Daniel Leightley, Luis Torrico, Alex Gasulla, Angel Menendez-Vazquez, Ana Maria Ortega-Prieto, Suzanne Pickering, Jose M Jimenez-Guardeño, Rahul Batra, Sona Rubinchik, Aaron V F Tan, Amy Griffin, David Sherrin, Stelios Papaioannou, Celine Trouillet, Hannah E Mischo, Victoriano Giralt, Samantha Wilson, Martin Kirk, Stuart J D Neil, Rui Pedro Galao, Jo Martindale, Charles Curtis, Mark Zuckerman, Reza Razavi, Michael H Malim, Rocio T Martinez-Nunez
{"title":"KCL TEST: an open-source inspired asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance programme in an academic institution.","authors":"Joana Reis de Andrade, Edward Scourfield, Shilpa Lekhraj Peswani-Sajnani, Kate Poulton, Thomas Ap Rees, Paniz Khooshemehri, George Doherty, Stephanie Ong, Iustina-Francisca Ivan, Negin Goudarzi, Isaac Gardiner, Estelle Caine, Thomas J A Maguire, Daniel Leightley, Luis Torrico, Alex Gasulla, Angel Menendez-Vazquez, Ana Maria Ortega-Prieto, Suzanne Pickering, Jose M Jimenez-Guardeño, Rahul Batra, Sona Rubinchik, Aaron V F Tan, Amy Griffin, David Sherrin, Stelios Papaioannou, Celine Trouillet, Hannah E Mischo, Victoriano Giralt, Samantha Wilson, Martin Kirk, Stuart J D Neil, Rui Pedro Galao, Jo Martindale, Charles Curtis, Mark Zuckerman, Reza Razavi, Michael H Malim, Rocio T Martinez-Nunez","doi":"10.1093/biomethods/bpae046","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rapid and accessible testing was paramount in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our university established KCL TEST: a SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic testing programme that enabled sensitive and accessible PCR testing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in saliva. Here, we describe our learnings and provide our blueprint for launching diagnostic laboratories, particularly in low-resource settings. Between December 2020 and July 2022, we performed 158277 PCRs for our staff, students, and their household contacts, free of charge. Our average turnaround time was 16 h and 37 min from user registration to result delivery. KCL TEST combined open-source automation and in-house non-commercial reagents, which allows for rapid implementation and repurposing. Importantly, our data parallel those of the UK Office for National Statistics, though we detected a lower positive rate and virtually no delta wave. Our observations strongly support regular asymptomatic community testing as an important measure for decreasing outbreaks and providing safe working spaces. Universities can therefore provide agile, resilient, and accurate testing that reflects the infection rate and trend of the general population. Our findings call for the early integration of academic institutions in pandemic preparedness, with capabilities to rapidly deploy highly skilled staff, as well as develop, test, and accommodate efficient low-cost pipelines.</p>","PeriodicalId":36528,"journal":{"name":"Biology Methods and Protocols","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11238426/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biology Methods and Protocols","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/biomethods/bpae046","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Rapid and accessible testing was paramount in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our university established KCL TEST: a SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic testing programme that enabled sensitive and accessible PCR testing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in saliva. Here, we describe our learnings and provide our blueprint for launching diagnostic laboratories, particularly in low-resource settings. Between December 2020 and July 2022, we performed 158277 PCRs for our staff, students, and their household contacts, free of charge. Our average turnaround time was 16 h and 37 min from user registration to result delivery. KCL TEST combined open-source automation and in-house non-commercial reagents, which allows for rapid implementation and repurposing. Importantly, our data parallel those of the UK Office for National Statistics, though we detected a lower positive rate and virtually no delta wave. Our observations strongly support regular asymptomatic community testing as an important measure for decreasing outbreaks and providing safe working spaces. Universities can therefore provide agile, resilient, and accurate testing that reflects the infection rate and trend of the general population. Our findings call for the early integration of academic institutions in pandemic preparedness, with capabilities to rapidly deploy highly skilled staff, as well as develop, test, and accommodate efficient low-cost pipelines.