COVID-19

By Theresa Duque In the early days of the pandemic, amidst all the uncertainty, one thing was for sure: N95 masks – the personal protective respiratory devices that filter out viruses, bacteria and wildfire smoke – were in short supply. So when materials scientists Jeff Urban and Peter Hosemann heard that a local HMO needed…

Thermo Fisher Scientific announces CE-marking of its TaqPath COVID-19, Flu A/B, RSV Combo Kit for the in vitro diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, influenza A/B and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) A/B infections. Using the new kit, laboratories can now run a single test for SARS-CoV-2, influenza (flu) A/B, and RSV to detect and differentiate between diseases that share…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care professionals and researchers have been confined mostly to using local and national datasets to study the impact of comorbidities (chronic or long-term health conditions), pre-existing medication use, demographics and various interventions on disease course. Now, Purdue University is joining with other organizations for an initiative to accelerate global collaborative…

PerkinElmer, announced today the Lighthouse Lab in Charnwood, Loughborough, England is now processing COVID-19 testing samples as part of the Company’s collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in support of the UK Government’s NHS Test and Trace program. The facility, operated by PerkinElmer Genomics, began processing samples today, and with its…

By Manette Fisher, [email protected] For responding with innovative solutions during the pandemic, developing solar cell and hydrogen research technology and creatively working with companies, Sandia National Laboratories won six prestigious regional 2020 Federal Laboratory Consortium awards. The awards for the Mid-Continent and Far West regions put a spotlight on Sandia successes in transferring technology, partnerships…

The University of Oxford has joined forces with Thermo Fisher Scientific to ramp up the university’s capacity to deliver COVID-19 testing data. The new rapid testing laboratory and jointly developed Thermo Scientific OmnipathTM Combi SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA test detects and quantifies antibodies against the coronavirus and increases the University of Oxford’s testing capacity to up…

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and its partners AMD, Supermicro and Cornelis Networks have installed a new high-performance computing (HPC) cluster with memory and data storage capabilities optimized for data-intensive COVID-19 research and pandemic response. Funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the “big memory” cluster, called Mammoth, will be used at LLNL…

PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) announced today that EUROIMMUN, a PerkinElmer company, has launched the Anti-SARS-CoV-2 QuantiVac ELISA (IgG) to quantify IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 S1 antigen. The assay is available for countries accepting the CE mark, and the Company plans to file a request for this product with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for…

PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) announced  that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to allow sample pooling with PerkinElmer New Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Detection Kit to increase the number of individuals who can be tested without increasing resources. This validation of batch testing using the industry’s most sensitive assay to…

By  Jeremy P Rumsey To better understand how the novel coronavirus behaves and how it can be stopped, scientists have completed a three-dimensional map that reveals the location of every atom in an enzyme molecule critical to SARS-CoV-2 reproduction. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron scattering to identify key…

PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) announced today that its PKamp Respiratory SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Panel has received clearance to be marketed as an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) device in more than 30 countries by meeting the requirements of the European In Vitro Diagnostic Directive (IVDD). This test is currently under review by the U.S. FDA for Emergency Use…

PerkinElmer (NYSE:PKI), a company committed to innovating for a healthier world, announced this week that a research team at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is working with PerkinElmer’s AlphaLISA immunoassay to help support the global search for effective COVID-19 therapeutics. The NCATS research…

In response to global demand for dependable technologies designed to optimize COVID-19 testing, Atik Cameras, specialist designer and manufacturer of advanced scientific imaging solutions, has developed the new VS255 and VS825 cameras for use specifically with quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) instruments — the most commonly used systems for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These…

Harnessing the unique strengths of DOE to tackle the biotechnology challenges of COVID-19 WHAT: A virtual symposium to highlight the impact the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL) has had utilizing the unique capabilities of the DOE to tackle the science and technology challenges associated with COVID-19, and to discuss areas…

Without a doubt, this has been a disruptive year in healthcare. But for those of us in the life sciences community, the global pandemic has only strengthened our resolve and commitment to ensure that drug discovery and development continue for patients in need. And so we have adjusted our approach, and worked with others in…

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) launched a new portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests featuring the Thermo Scientific OmniPATH COVID-19 Total Antibody ELISA test and the Thermo Scientific EliA SARS-CoV-2-Sp1 IgG test. The OmniPATH COVID-19 Total Antibody ELISA test has been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  The EUA…

With funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, chipmaker AMD and information technology company Supermicro have upgraded the supercomputing cluster Corona, providing additional resources to scientists for COVID-19 drug discovery and vaccine research. The recent addition of nearly 1,000 AMD Radeon Instinct MI50 GPU accelerators to the…

A partnership between Sandia National Laboratories and the Boston firm BioBright to improve the security of synthetic biology equipment has become more relevant after the United States and others issued warnings that hackers were using the COVID-19 pandemic to increase their activities. “In the past decade, genomics and synthetic biology have grown from principally academic…

by Michigan Technological University Joshua Pearce is the Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He runs the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab, which works on solar photovoltaics, 3D printing, and open source science hardware. There is a desperate need…

by Karen K. Dunlap Experts at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are now offering short-term technical and scientific assistance to entities working to combat the coronavirus through the COVID-19 Technical Assistance Program, or CTAP, an initiative of DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions. CTAP provides targeted funding to ORNL and other national laboratories…

European Union/U.K. R&D Like most other regions of the world, the European Union (EU) and the U.K. have been caught in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and economic consequences. In April, the U.K., the world’s sixth largest economy, saw its output drop 20% from March and 25% from April 2019. The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics…

by PLOS A new low-cost diagnostic test for COVID-19 quickly delivers accurate results without the need for sophisticated equipment, according to a study published August 27 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Teng Xu of the Vision Medicals Center for Infectious Diseases, Tieying Hou of the Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Bing Gu…

By Michaela Jarvis | MIT News correspondent MIT researchers have developed a simple, low-cost technology to administer powerful drug formulations that are too viscous to be injected using conventional medical syringes. The technology, which is described in a paper published today in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, makes it possible to inject high-concentration drugs and…

Novation Industries, an Illinois-based injection molding and vertically integrated product production company, received increased production orders for personal protection equipment (PPE) and rapidly replied to demand. Increased order volume, which started in April and will continue at least through September, includes molding and complete product assembly of face protection products. Novation produces the PPE for an…

By Tim Studt This special editorial section is an update to R&D World’s 2020 Global R&D Funding Forecast (GFF), which has been published annually since January 1959 (the first issue of R&D World’s predecessor, Industrial Research). The original 2020 GFF was created and published in the February 2020 issue of R&D World (and online at www.rdworldonline.com)…