MP: NTNU COVID-19 test

After weeks of intensive testing for COVID-19, St. Olavs Hospital was running out of test reagents. To prevent a shortage, as well as limit the country?s dependence on commercial sources for test reagents, a strong and cross-disciplinary team of researchers from NTNU teamed up to develop an in-house extraction method for SARS-CoV-2 detection. The cross-disciplinary work resulted in a new and optimized COVID-19 RNA extraction method based on expertise on nucleic acid purification and nanoparticles at NTNU. The solution is an optimized COVID-19 test containing a novel chemical composition for efficient lysis of virus combined with NTNU-crafted magnetic nanoparticles for RNA extraction. It is a global urgent need for test reagents and the NTNU team has attracted a lot of interest from countries and industrial players who want access to the technology. The current milestone application is aimed to clarify important issues that needs to be addressed in order to make the technology available to ease the burden of the pandemic.

There has been a constant lack of reagents for RNA extraction for PCR-based tests over the last two months and dialogue with the leading companies reveal that they are actively seeking alternatives for suppliers of reagents in order to address the global needs. The project group has verified a strong interest in the NTNU technology and a successful implementation of the technology globally will be of high impact well in line with NTNU's slogan: "Knowledge for a better world". The products has now been sold to customers nationally and internationally and has eased the burden of the pandemic. The current project is well in line with UN sustainable development goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Supplying millions of COVID-19 test kits to the world will have a significant impact on goal 3.8, "Achieve access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all."