Meet ‘COVID-ALERT (Accessible LAMP-Enabled Rapid Test)’, a semi-finalist for the XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing challenge
Ali Bektas, a molecular biologist at the Oakland Genomics Center, is coordinating a team that is developing a robust, simple, and sensitive test to detect viruses at home, at low-cost, based on an RT-LAMP assay. He joined the OpenCovid19 Initiative on Just One Giant Lab (JOGL) earlier this year with the project COVID-ALERT (Accessible LAMP-Enabled Rapid Test).
According to him, with a simple one-step operation, individuals will be able to collect a nasal sample, insert the swab into a single tube embedded in a portable “thermal chamber” and have a visual readout within 30 minutes. Currently, they are focusing on the detection of SARS-CoV-2, but they are hoping that the platform can be easily modified to detect other viruses and microorganisms.
The COVID-ALERT project has recently been selected as a semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing challenge, along with the following projects on JOGL: One-hour Covid Test using LAMP, Do-It-Together SARS CoV-2 Detective (check out our interview with Rachel Aronoff here), and Corona Hunter! Congratulations to the teams!
To learn more about COVID-ALERT, we spoke with Ali Bektas by email.
Congratulations for being selected as a semi-finalist for the XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing challenge! What do you think about the challenge overall? What do you think about the rules and requirements, the judging criteria to determine the winners? Do you wish something was different?
It’s a good idea given our testing crisis. But I do hope that the XPRIZE will be able to balance the competitive aspect with a cooperative approach. I am optimistic since they have been emphasizing the values of open science.
In terms of the criteria, it is somewhat opaque. The semi-finalists will all undergo a blinded proficiency test, but beyond this it is unclear how the winners will be chosen.
Can you tell us a little about your project? What is the coolest thing about it? Who is helping you?
Our project aims to bring the capacity of nucleic acid detection (in this case of SARS-CoV-2) to regular people with little to no training in molecular biology techniques. We value simplicity over expensive, complicated, “black box” machines while not compromising on sensitivity and robustness. There are a lot of technical details which I won’t bother you with here.
Recently we have expanded our Oakland-based team to include collaborators in Chile and the UK who bring the much-needed expertise in enzyme production to our project.
What kinds of challenges are you facing? Are you close to achieving your goals?
Our biggest challenge has been to validate our test with human clinical samples. One would think that being in the epicenter of the pandemic, the US, this wouldn’t be so difficult, but so far our privatized healthcare system and academics unwilling to collaborate have prevented us from doing such validation where we are. Thanks to our contacts through JOGL, we have done our first round of successful clinical validation studies in France and Chile (and hopefully in Germany soon!)
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
We are looking forward to testing our test during the XPRIZE challenge. This will be a good opportunity to collect more data and compare it to other techniques as we are finalizing the design of our cartridges and moving on to production.
Stay tuned for our upcoming interviews with team members of the other XPRIZE projects on Just One Giant Lab. Check out our interview with Rachel Aronoff of Corona Detective.
JOGL is developing a virtual laboratory where users can collaborate and innovate in order to solve problems that address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). You can join us at https://jogl.io/
