ASU has made 2,000 new coronavirus test kits, using robots for faster results

Arizona State University said it is ready to start implementing high-speed coronavirus testing this week using robots. The university has also begun to manufacture additional test kits to help with current test kit shortages.

ASU said it has made about 2,000 kits already and expects to make about 1,000 a day in the coming weeks. Joshua LaBaer, director of ASU's Biodesign Institute, said the university plans to distribute the kits to local health care providers. ASU hopes to be able to provide testing for local health care providers as well as first responders or other people with essential jobs, he said.

“We've identified a number of key partnership organizations that that have personnel who are critical to the community, people who are first responders or, you know, work on infrastructure projects that we all rely upon,” LaBaer said.

The goal is to use testing to keep doctors, nurses and other first responders free of the disease so they can continue to care for others safely.

The university said it has already tested the kits and determined that the process works. The efforts have been boosted by a $2 million grant to the university for testing and test kit manufacturing.

"We're at the point where we're ready to start running samples for people and help get results out there," LaBaer said.

The ASU lab would use specialized robots to process samples, allowing it to provide results at a faster rate than state and hospital labs, where tests are typically processed by hand. The robots can read results for many samples at the same time, potentially allowing ASU to complete hundreds of samples a day.

At this point, LaBaer declined to say which hospitals or organizations the university was working with to start testing workers, but said that those plans should be finalized this week.

ASU originally hoped to have testing ready last week, but LaBaer said the university had to clear regulatory hurdles and navigate supply shortages to manufacture kits and start testing. One of those hurdles included getting the laboratory certified to meet federal regulations for clinical diagnostic testing.

Normally, the university uses research-grade chemical ingredients, or reagents, for their laboratory tests. Those research-grade supplies are not meant to be used in clinical tests.

"We can't use them here. Here we need to be using clinical grade reagents that have been tested and come with a certificate of assurance attached to them," LaBaer said. "The supplies to run the reactions are not cheap."

READ MORE: ASU uses robots to speed coronavirus testing

ASU has received a $2 million grant from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust to help pay for these supplies and the expansion and implementation of its high-speed COVID-19 testing.

"Frankly we had no idea where we were going to get support," LaBaer said. "So they stepped up in a huge way ... it's going to cover the cost of equipment that we desperately need, supplies that we desperately need, personnel time that we put into this — it's a huge effort for us."

Without this grant, LaBaer said the university could not have raised the money needed as quickly.

Using the grant money, the university also plans to buy a second robot to process and test samples. The robot cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars, but LaBaer said having the second robot to do testing is invaluable.

"Everything was resting on one old robot, so if that broke, then the whole system would collapse. If we lost our robot, we're done, we're shut down," he said. "We're trying to replicate that setup so that we have essentially a backup system."

Now, if something goes wrong, the university could continue to process samples and run tests. The university expects to get the second robot sometime in the next six weeks.

The university has a long history with the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, which is part of the reason the foundation decided to award the grant, according to Mary Jane Rynd, president and CEO of the trust.

"The other part was the fact that Dr. LaBaer's group was able to pivot the use of something they already had, to make response nimble and quick," Rynd said.

Rynd's hope is that the grant can be used to fight the spread of the disease and eventually expand testing beyond first responders and essential infrastructure jobs.

"As ASU scales tests to hundreds a day, once we get through first responders and the healthcare community, we hope testing will expand to the greater community and beyond," Rynd said.

LaBaer said he still supports the idea of more widespread testing and that the university still hopes to open a drive-thru site in the future, but there were no concrete timetables for that goal. Instead, he said, the university will focus first on helping current health care systems and first responders.

Another major challenge to start testing was finding the supplies needed to make test kits. LaBaer credits Joseph Miceli, the ASU Biodesign Institute project coordinator, for working full time to hunt for supplies, which have been in limited availability nationwide.

"We couldn't find available materials, especially the swabs, but he managed to find a number of them by just looking under a thousand rocks," LaBaer said. "And that's what's enabling us to build these kits."

Though some of the supplies have been ordered through distributors, LaBaer said the university is also using 3D printers to make things like testing swabs to take samples and face shields to protect people who are taking samples from getting infected.

Last week, the University of Arizona started manufacturing its own test kits as well, which have been distributed to the Pima County Health Department as well as local healthcare providers.

In addition to grant funding, ASU has also received an outpouring of volunteer support for its efforts. Last week, the university put out a call to volunteers to help assemble test kits, collect and handle samples, and process samples.

LaBaer said the university has about 500 volunteers on top of full-time staff working seven days a week to try to get everything done as quickly as possible.

"While everybody else is sort of slowing down...these people are rushing in to get stuff done," LaBaer said. "They're going the other direction and trying to make things happen."

Amanda Morris covers all things bioscience, which includes health care, technology, new research and the environment. Send her tips, story ideas, or dog memes at amorris@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @amandamomorris for the latest bioscience updates.

Independent coverage of bioscience in Arizona is supported by a grant from the Flinn Foundation.

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