WCM-Rutgers NJMS CTU Supplement for COVID Testing

ABSTRACT The Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) Clinical Research Site (CRS) 31786 is requesting $300,000 in funding to help support Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing. The CRS is part of the Weill Cornell-Rutgers NJMS Clinical Trials Unit and has been a site for two Division of AIDS (DAIDS) funded clinical trials networks: AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) and HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) for fifteen years. The program plans to provide SARS-CoV-2 testing by leveraging its existing relationships with the local community and partnering with the clinical laboratory located at Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), also a Rutgers facility to perform SARS-CoV-2 testing using the Cepheid testing platform. The Cepheid COVID-19 testing platform has been developed at PHRI with Cepheid and is one of the most sensitive tests currently available to detect SARS-Co-V 2 infection. We will provide SARS-CoV-2 testing at the CRS, in an adjacent building and on a mobile van. These testing locations are well-known and easily accessible to the community, healthcare workers and other high-risk groups. We will also attempt to ensure that special populations such as minorities and the LGBTQ community have access to the test. Finally, this will help the CRS further strengthen its relationship with the community and allow the unit to provide an essential service to this hard-hit community. If funded, this project will allow us to rapidly increase the availability of SARS CoV-2 testing and help contribute to the urgent need for additional COVID testing in an underserved community located near the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.