BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card is the Beginning of the End

Abbott’s new $5, 15-minute, 50 million per month test is a game-changer This past week an eventful announcement came from Abbott Laboratories, manufacturer of several diagnostic platforms, including several already approved fro COVID-19 testing including amplification-based IDNow, and a few antibody automated systems, one prominent one being the Architect. Now […]

A Pair of Announcements – The Adventure Continues

The experience of working to build something from nothing is invaluable. And I am happy to announce that I am now officially open for the next adventure in my own career. Announcement Number One: Moving On from Heligenics You read on this blog (it was only June 18, which you […]

A new role at startup Heligenics decoding variant function

GigaAssay technology spun out of the University of Nevada Las Vegas connects mutations to health Over the course of the past three months with school-aged children underfoot, there have been many opportunities to talk about what life was like when I was growing up and how that contrasts with life […]

Asymptomatic Transmission: The Achilles’ Heel 1

Research from a Washington State skilled nursing facility confirms over half did not show symptoms but are infecting others with SARS-CoV-2 In early March, this report in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) was the first outside-of-China, peer-reviewed publication that documents asymptomatic spread. In brief: an otherwise healthy Shanghai […]

rRT-PCR and Seroconversion of SARS-CoV-2 in Nine COVID-19 patients 1

Thorough research on nine infected individuals in Germany shows important details on the natural course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, infectivity from an infected individual, and ability to detect the RNA via rRT-PCR, live virus assay, and neutralizing antibody testing It was about five years ago, starting at a new employer SeraCare […]

Notes about asymptomatic spread of SARS-CoV-2

You will need to wear a mask for a while In this current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the US Nursing Home Association has rightly called the SARS-CoV-2 virus ‘almost the perfect killing machine‘ for elderly patients. Compared to SARS-CoV (aka ‘SARS Classic’ circa 2003), it is clear that […]

NIH starts serological survey testing anti-SARS-CoV-2 among the US population 2

Using both traditional blood draw and an innovative home-collection device, the NIH recruits 1000 healthy volunteers nationwide The SARS-CoV-2 virus (otherwise known as coronavirus, the causative virus of COVID-19 disease currently rampaging worldwide) is a difficult pathogen to battle. While clearing out my bursting-at-the-seams ‘downloads’ folder on my computer this […]

German Karneval goer ready to party

Serological testing in Germany shows resistance to coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 at 14 percent 3

First preliminary results from widespread IgA/IgG SARS-CoV-2 resistance antibody testing in Heinsberg Germany Being an active research scientist or having a life science research background during a once-in-a-lifetime worldwide epidemic is a remarkable thing. Whether reading pre-prints on MedRxiv or looking into the latest news of the day or reading […]

The first antibody test for SARS-CoV-2 in the US 1

The US FDA clears the first serology test for assessing infectious spread In many ways it is difficult to assess the passage of time while in a national shutdown. It was a little over a week ago that I wrote about the need for a good antibody test for SARS-CoV-2, […]

Am I infected?

Reasons for SARS-CoV-2 optimism and a COVID-19 infographic

There is some reason in the US for optimism in the middle of this SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. I wrote earlier this week the absolute need for an antibody-based test for widespread public screening, to assess antibody responses to get a picture of who has been exposed to the virus and has […]