MP: NTNU COVID-19 test

After several weeks of intensive testing for the coronavirus, St. Olav's hospital was about to run out of test equipment. In order to prevent a lack of test material, as well as dependence on commercial players, an interdisciplinary group of researchers from NTNU joined forces to develop a separate test method for diagnostics of SARS-CoV-2. The result of the work is a new and improved method for COVID-19 RNA extraction, and the method is based on interdisciplinary expertise in nucleic acids and magnetic nanoparticles at NTNU. The result is an in-house developed and optimized chemical mixture to open up the virus as well as the production of magnetic nanoparticles to be able to extract the virus' genetic material. Preliminary results indicate that the NTNU-developed test is at least as sensitive compared to the best methods on the market. There is a large global demand for test reagents and the NTNU team has received a lot of international attention. One possible way to make the technology available is through collaboration with existing industry players for international distribution. This milestone application aims to clarify which industry requirements must be met in order to be able to make the technology available internationally and in this way be able to contribute to easing the burden of the pandemic.