Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Gilson has developed a compact, low-cost tube filling system that has the flexibility to fill bottles, tubes, vials, or microplates quickly. With the current pandemic, there is an exponential demand for diagnostic testing of patients for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Viral transport media (VTM) is a critical component of COVID-19 test kits and is used for the collection, transport, and storage of clinical specimens....

Cytel Inc. has significantly widened the geographical scope of the TOGETHER trial, a unique study to identify early COVID-19 interventions in underserved low- and middle-income country (LMIC) populations. The trial, supported with seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is one of the very few studies investigating therapies at the earliest stages of COVID-19 infection, and is the only trial to explore early interventions in the Global South....

SP Industries, Inc. (SP), has hosted a visit by US Congressman, Brian Fitzpatrick, who was on a fact-finding mission to find out more about the work SP is doing to support Operation Warp Speed, and discuss SP’s plans for increasing capacity and capabilities. Operation Warp Speed (OWS), an initiative of the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), aims to...

National charity Heart Research UK has launched a new grant of up to £250,000 for research projects investigating the relationship between COVID-19 and heart disease. People with existing cardiovascular disease have a higher risk of severe complications from Covid-19 infection, and evidence is emerging that the virus can cause damage to the heart....

Relation Therapeutics, a drug development company driven by data science and machine learning (ML), announces Project RE, which will apply Relation Therapeutics’ and its partners’ technologyto the identification of repurposed drug combinations as potential therapeutic candidates for COVID-19....

Paradigm4, specialist in scientific data management and scalable computation, has launched its REVEAL: Single CellTM app to offer biopharmaceutical developers the ability to break through the data wrangling and programming challenges associated with the analysis of large-scale, single-cell datasets...

Illumina has announced that the Australian public health laboratories will aim to sequence the virus genomes of all positive COVID-19 tests in Australia and track COVID-19 using genomics across the country, rather than state by state, under a ground-breaking initiative spearheaded by Australia’s public health laboratory organisations and leading industry partners...

Bernie Benson, founder of Benson Viscometers, and explains more about the use of blood viscometers in helping to guide the treatment of Covid-19 patients. One of the biggest challenges facing medical teams treating Covid-19 patients is identifying which ones are likely to suffer the most extreme responses to the virus....

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend up to EUR 10 million to Scope Fluidics, a Polish medical technology company developing innovative products in the field of medical diagnostics. Scope Fluidics uses microfluidic technologies (involving the manipulation of small quantities of test samples within a disposable diagnostic cartridge) and focuses on rapid characterization of antibiotic resistance of bacteria and on ultra-fast detection of bacterial and viral pathogens (including COVID-19)....

PCR Biosystems has launched RiboShield™ RNase Inhibitor. Already an important component of several PCR Biosystems kits, this robust and reliable RNase inhibitor is, for the first time, available as a standalone product. RiboShield™ RNase Inhibitor is a recombinant protein that blocks the activity of a wide range of ribonucleases to reliably protect RNA from RNase digestion. The inhibitor is designed for use in a variety of RNA-sensitive applications including RNA purification, cDNA synthesis, RT-PCR, RNA sequencing, and in-situ hybridization....

Kallik, a leading labelling and artwork management solution provider for regulated markets, has announced it has joined the life sciences organisation Medilink West Midlands, an industry association dedicated to supporting growth of this key market sector throughout the region. The new agreement expands the existing Kallik patronage of Medilink East Midlands to the whole of the Midlands, and will provide close ties with members of over 1,700 life sciences organisations....

Bruker Corporation has announced its support of a worldwide collaborative project that investigates the structures, dynamics, function and binding of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA and proteins using high-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The Covid19-NMR consortium was initiated at Goethe University (GU) in Frankfurt, Germany, and leverages the extensive experience of the GU Biological Magnetic Resonance Center and of 30 consortium groups in 15 countries in high-field NMR, structural biology, and small molecule drug screening.

Researchers and clinicians in Glasgow will lead a global study into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19. The international, multi-site study is launched by ISARIC to measure prevalence and risk factors of long-term health and psychosocial consequences of COVID-19. The researchers are inviting hospitals and healthcare sites worldwide to join this new study. The ISARIC Global COVID-19 follow-up working group is led by Dr Janet Scott, of the MRC-University of Glasgow’s Centre for Virus Research...

Teknova, a leading manufacturer of cell culture media and supplements, protein purification buffers, and molecular biology reagents, has responded quickly to the global COVID-19 pandemic by significantly scaling up production of Viral Transport Medium (VTM) and saline. All Teknova VTM is manufactured and validated according to the CDC procedure, and both VTM and saline are manufactured under GMP conditions in compliance with ISO 13485 standards and the Quality System Regulations under 21 CFR Part 820....

Avacta Group plc, the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce that it will launch an ELISA laboratory test for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to support global research efforts into the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (“ELISAs”) are very common research tools used to detect and quantify a target of interest in a wide range of samples....

AnteoTech Ltd has successfully developed proof-of-concept COVID-19 antigen and Flu A&B point-of-care lateral flow tests that can detect the presence of SARS-Cov-2 and influenza in less than 15 minutes. The tests utilize AnteoTech’s patented AnteoBind™ activated europium technology and provide significantly higher sensitivity than that offered by currently available COVID-19 tests....

Steam sterilization in autoclaves is used - especially in biological and medical laboratories - to inactivate natural or genetically modified microorganisms. However, during the heat-up phase, in which air is removed from the pressure vessel, biological agents can potentially escape into the work area as aerosols.This means that exhaust air filtration is extremely important, especially in light of the current coronavirus epidemic....

Porvair Sciences announces a special version of its popular Homogeniser Spin Column optimised for RNA extraction from buccal swabs. A large number of current COVID-19 diagnostic tests are reliant on detection of viral RNA from buccal swabs by PCR. The Chromatrap® Homogeniser Spin Column from Porvair Sciences has been adapted to ensure that it can routinely improve yield and quality of viral RNA from nasal and throat swab samples.,,

iST Scientific, one of the UK’s leading laboratory equipment suppliers to the life sciences industry, announces that it has supplied 5.2 million specialist micro-plate sealing films, which are vital components in Covid-19 tests, across the globe. This figure equates to over half a billion individual wells being used throughout the PCR process internationally.