{"doi":"10.1101/2020.07.29.20163949","title":"A blueprint for academic labs to produce SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR test kits","abstract":"Widespread testing for the presence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in individuals remains vital for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic prior to the advent of an effective treatment. Challenges in testing can be traced to an initial shortage of supplies, expertise and/or instrumentation necessary to detect the virus by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), the most robust, sensitive, and specific assay currently available. Here we show that academic biochemistry and molecular biology laboratories equipped with appropriate expertise and infrastructure can replicate commercially available SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR test kits and backfill pipeline shortages. The Georgia Tech COVID-19 Test Kit Support Group, composed of faculty, staff, and trainees across the biotechnology quad at Georgia Institute of Technology, synthesized multiplexed primers and probes and formulated a master mix composed of enzymes and proteins produced in-house. Our in-house kit compares favorably to a commercial product used for diagnostic testing. We also developed an environmental testing protocol to readily monitor surfaces across various campus laboratories for the presence of SARS-CoV-2. Our blueprint should be readily reproducible by research teams at other institutions, and our protocols may be modified and adapted to enable SARS-CoV-2 detection in more resource-limited settings.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2020,"id":121276,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9582,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":337532,"name":"Sara Fakhretaha-Aval","orcid":"0000-0002-1901-8820","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337533,"name":"Jessica C. 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Barlow","orcid":"0000-0002-5132-1520","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337542,"name":"Rebecca K. Donegan","orcid":"0000-0003-2443-1481","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337543,"name":"Nguyet A. Nguyen","orcid":"0000-0002-8212-4335","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337544,"name":"Emily Saccuzzo","orcid":"0000-0001-7772-7740","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337545,"name":"Chiamaka T. Obianyor","orcid":"0000-0003-4978-9463","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337546,"name":"Suneesh C. 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Penev","orcid":"0000-0002-9027-3824","position":25,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337553,"name":"Robert G. Mannino","orcid":"0000-0002-7724-7330","position":26,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337554,"name":"Wilbur A. Lam","orcid":"0000-0002-0325-7990","position":27,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":245036,"name":"Andrés J. Garcı́a","orcid":"0000-0001-6602-2518","position":28,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337555,"name":"Julia Kubanek","orcid":"0000-0003-4482-1831","position":29,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337556,"name":"Vinayak Agarwal","orcid":"0000-0002-2517-589X","position":30,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337557,"name":"Nicholas V. Hud","orcid":"0000-0001-7711-6472","position":31,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337558,"name":"Jennifer B. Glass","orcid":"0000-0003-0775-2486","position":32,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337559,"name":"Loren Dean Williams","orcid":"0000-0002-7215-4194","position":33,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337560,"name":"Raquel L. 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