Clinical field evaluation of cutting-edge COVID-19 test technologies in Africa
The research group of Prof. Janos Vörös together with the startup Hemetron are co-developing an electrochemically enhanced rapid test for COVID-19, providing improved accuracy while retaining all the advantages of a rapid test: speed, mobility, price efficiency and ease of use.
While international COVID-19 vaccination efforts are increasing to fight the pandemic, ETH Zurich is applying its technological know-how in biosensing to improve COVID-19 tests. Two cutting-edge COVID-19 test technologies developed at ETH Zurich are clinically evaluated in an international collaboration of 11 research groups in Europe and Africa. The new test technologies will contribute to improve decentralized COVID-19 tests to better and faster identify local outbreaks and to help containing the pandemic in low- and middle-income countries that will not receive enough doses to vaccinate their population as quickly as high-income countries. At the same time, the fast accumulation of COVID-19 mutations worldwide may lead to decreased effectiveness of vaccines and the need for better and faster tests to contain local outbreaks in the whole world.
One of the main goals of the project is the successful implementation of three unique technologies in remote and resource limited settings. Next to the co-devolopment of rapid tests for COVID-19 of Prof. Vörös group together with the startup Hemetron, Prof. Stark's Group at ETH provides a mobile PCR test (peakPCR) and the University Leipzig contributes a suitcase lab-based RT-PCR test.
The study is an international effort to test the applicability of the novel test technologies in eight African countries to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic. It is funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership and the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health.
external pageThe BRCCH and EDCTP start a new joint initiative
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