LABORATORY INFORMATICS
diagnose Covid-19 caused by the Sars- CoV-2 virus. The Applied Biosystems TaqPath Covid-19 kit is designed to enable fast, highly sensitive multiplex diagnostic testing that contains both the assays and controls needed for real-time PCR detection of RNA from the virus. This can mean detection in under two hours. In a recent blog post from Thermo
Fisher, Kamini Varma, senior director molecular biology, gave an inside view on the efforts taken to launch the TaqPath kit. ‘We had already developed a respiratory panel in 2019, so we were quite familiar with coronavirus and how to design assays to identify it. That didn’t make the work ahead easy, but we were able to quickly mobilise to develop both single and multiplex tests. I guess you could say that over the years we’ve been “building our muscle” to be able to respond quickly and decisively to a pandemic like this, and it’s a good thing we were. ‘By mid-February, our nearly round-the- clock development work had produced a viable assay that we felt was ready to begin the emergency-use authorisation [EUA] process with the FDA [US Food and Drug Administration], a first step in putting a test into the market for more widespread use,’ added Varma. ‘At the time, we were unsure of the timeframe for the EUA process, but our reference point was the Zika virus a few years ago, where our EUA process took nine months. But, given what was already happening in countries such as Italy, we knew we would need to find a way to accelerate the process.’ As scientists across the world continue
to fight against this global health crisis, technologies for testing are being developed, manufactured and scaled up to meet unprecedented demand. Recently informatics software provider Abbott launched an antibody test for Covid-19 which is being shipped to hospitals across the US. The test is a serology test – also called an antibody test – providing a critical step in battling the virus by enabling health professionals to determine who has been previously infected. Abbott’s test helps to detect the IgG antibody to SARS-CoV-2. An antibody is a protein that the body produces in the late stages of infection, and may remain for months after a person has recovered. Detecting these IgG antibodies will help determine if a person was previously infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. Abbott first made the test available
as part of the FDA’s notification without an EUA pathway that was outlined for Covid-19 diagnostic tests during the
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public health emergency. Since then, Abbott has received EUA from the FDA and CE Mark in Europe. In April the company announced that it would ‘significantly scale up’ manufacturing for antibody testing. In August Abbott reported that it had shipped more than 13 million antibody tests to customers across the US. While molecular testing can be used to
identify people with the virus, antibody tests can tell whether someone has been previously infected. This type of knowledge will enable scientists to better understand how long these antibodies stay in the body, and if they provide immunity. This information can also help public health officials understand how widespread the outbreak is and could help support the development of treatments and vaccines for Covid-19. ‘Antibody testing has the potential
to unlock a lot of unknowns about this novel virus,” said John Hackett, divisional vice president of Applied Research and Technology, Diagnostics, Abbott. ‘Having
“Allowing the scientists to do less administrative work and spend more time working with their data is going to speed up innovation”
tests that can work in different healthcare settings is critical to our understanding of the virus, and to helping give healthcare providers answers they need about their patients.’ Interactive Software’s Achiever medical
LIMS can be used to facilitate onsite testing for universities. In a recently published blog post Sharon Williams, product director at Interactive Software, discusses the role of LIMS software in assisting organisations to conduct their own tests for Covid-19. ‘Achiever Medical LIMS formats and standardises your data to make sure it’s consistent. If you’re not carrying out the tests immediately and want to store the samples, storage management in the solution enables you to define your storage containers and track sample movement. ‘If you’re handling human tissue samples in the UK, then compliance with the Human Tissue Act is essential. So, it’s important that you have the appropriate level of consent for any work you’re doing with the samples. Especially if you’re planning on aliquoting and storing them
for future studies. Achiever Medical LIMS enables you to record and track informed consent alongside the student or staff member. This includes managing opt-ins and handling consent withdrawals. Plus, all sample events, such as aliquoting and analysing, are audited and the sample genealogy captured for complete traceability,’ states Williams. ‘Achiever Medical LIMS is available as an on-premise or hosted solution. The solution also includes a set of standard sample processing workflows as well as a library of dashboards. This allows your labs and Biobank to start using the system within weeks,’ adds Willams.
Enabling remote working One of the key concepts behind web- based LIMS and ELN software is the access that it provides to users. With current working conditions organisations are taking additional precautions to protect staff and tools that can facilitate remote working are becoming increasingly critical to support organisations ability to deliver results in a timely manner. ‘One of the ways to expedite gaining insights from the data is the ability to quickly share data or have access to data,’ notes Taylor. ‘The ability to have that information at your fingertips, rather than having to wait for an email update from a colleague, or that weekly meeting update to see what the data is looking like. Now you can choose to share that data with your collaborators and generate insights closer to real time, rather than waiting for prescribed communication moments.’ Rose added: ‘Being able to allow
collaboration but within the confines that make sense between two organisations. Having tools that enable you to secure things just based on the information that you really want to share. When you get more remote, the need for web-based access becomes even more critical.’ Taylor stressed that ultimately these
tools are about increasing productivity and minimising time wasted by scientists in the laboratory. ‘Allowing the scientists to do less administrative work and spend more time looking at and working with their data is going to speed up innovation.’ Having to constantly check on instrumentation, calibration settings or reagents means that scientists’ time can be wasted. Making use of informatics tools that automate some of these processes or allow the information to be easily checked in one central location can alleviate this burden. ‘You can automate some of that work so scientists can spend more time with the data and come up with breakthroughs,’ said Taylor.
Autumn 2020 Scientific Computing World 25
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