Establishment of open source RT-LAMP based SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics in Africa
- Funded by Volkswagen Stiftung
- Total publications:0 publications
Grant number: unknown
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Key facts
Disease
COVID-19start year
2020Funder
Volkswagen StiftungPrincipal Investigator
Prof Dr and Dr and Dr Joachim Wittbrodt, Thomas Olivier Auer, Lucia Prieto GodinoResearch Location
GermanyLead Research Institution
Universität HeidelbergResearch Priority Alignment
N/A
Research Category
Pathogen: natural history, transmission and diagnostics
Research Subcategory
Diagnostics
Special Interest Tags
N/A
Study Type
Non-Clinical
Clinical Trial Details
N/A
Broad Policy Alignment
Pending
Age Group
Not Applicable
Vulnerable Population
Not applicable
Occupations of Interest
Not applicable
Abstract
One of the key actions to limit the socio-economic and health impacts of COVID-19 is widespread testing followed by rapid track and trace strategies. However, traditional testing often incurs in delays of several days and relies on expensive equipment. Point of care diagnostic tests overcome this limitation, but for African countries, bottlenecks in the global supply chain of reagents are still a challenge. The project team has developed an open source SARSCoV-2 point of care test that can be locally manufactured in African countries. The aim of this project is to establish its use as a diagnostic tool in two African countries, in view of its future widespread use across the continent.