North East Innovation Lab supports study into new COVID-19 test

The study used COVID samples from the North East Innovation Lab biobank, a unique storage facility which holds thousands of respiratory, blood and saliva samples. The lab is part of Newcastle Hospitals and supports new and emerging diagnostics said to be “the next generation of testing technology” which will enable the rapid identification of disease and viruses.

The lab team works with UK and international clients to accelerate the development and use of innovative diagnostics that can help with health threats such as respiratory illness, sepsis and cancer. The technologies used are at various stages of development, from early concepts through to market-ready devices.

“We developed a new type of COVID-19 test which has many advantages over current lateral flow tests,” said Dr Marloes Peeters, lead author and senior lecturer at Newcastle University. “For example, lateral flow tests use biological antibodies to trap and detect the COVID-19 virus, whereas we use a synthetic alternative.

“The different material allows for a test which is as fast – 15 mins, and cheap as a lateral flow test – but can detect 6000-times smaller amounts of the COVID-19 virus. Consequently, this will improve test accuracy, particularly for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic individuals.”

Dr Donna Nile, senior scientist and biobank manager, added: “We’re delighted that our biobank has played a pivotal role in supporting this study. The biobank is a vital repository to enable our evaluation and validation work in the lab and to support wider industry in ‘testing the tests’.

“Importantly, each sample in the biobank has detailed meta-data carefully attached, allowing for the careful selection of samples according to our clients’ needs. Additionally, bespoke, project-specific samples can be collected to fit with the requests of clients.”