Can we pass this COVID test?

Happy New Year. We’re kicking off a busy week in Washington with a look at the role of CRISPR in fighting the pandemic—and how this might lead to other innovations in the future. (1,000 words, 5 minutes)

Can we pass this COVID test?

Four in 10 people infected with COVID-19 have no symptoms—which is why fast, accurate, inexpensive testing is critically important. On today’s episode of the I AM BIO Podcast, BIO’s Phyllis Arthur speaks with a biotech company that’s pioneering an at-home diagnostic to get more people tested in year two of the pandemic.

New BIO member Sherlock Biosciences developed a CRISPR-based COVID-19 diagnostic—which received the FDA’s first-ever emergency use authorization for a CRISPR-based diagnostic for its ability to provide “specific and sensitive identification of SARS-CoV-2.”

Now, they’re working on a potential game-changer:an at-home diagnostic kit as easy, safe, and accurate as an at-home pregnancy test that could cost as little as $30 in retail stores, according to Sherlock CEO Rahul Dhanda.

The pandemic has led to incredible innovations in diagnostics, with more than 200 COVID diagnostics available and a rapid decentralization of testing.

But testing was also a weak spot in the pandemic response. “There has never in the history of this country or the world been a demand for this level of diagnostic testing,” said Dhanda. And because we “always treated diagnostics as a supplement or really a cost as opposed to a component essential to health care, we were unable to really step up and integrate diagnostics in the way that we needed to into a plan.”

“Our manufacturing capacity is there to provide the number of tests necessary,” he continued. “I think where we’re lacking is how we bridge access to those tests to the individuals who needed results.”

So what now? “It’s really critical that we think about this crisis in this pandemic as a broad public health challenge that requires us to integrate every aspect of its maintenance into a unified plan,” concluded Dhanda. “We don't need a testing strategy. We don't need a vaccine strategy. We don't need a therapeutic strategy. We don't need a digital health strategy. What we need is a COVID strategy, of which each and all of these pieces are a part of it.”

Listen to the whole thing to learn about the science behind Sherlock’s diagnostics, why the company decided to focus on COVID-19, and why equity and diversity matter to health care access and innovation.

Get the episode at www.bio.org/podcast or wherever you get your podcast fix, including Apple, Google, or Spotify.

More Health Care News:

Axios: Poor vaccine planning could increase the pandemic's racial divide
“Failing to put the most vulnerable Americans at the front of the line for coronavirus vaccines will exacerbate the gaping racial and ethnic disparities that have characterized the pandemic, experts say.”

STAT News: Pfizer and BioNTech speed up timeline for offering COVID-19 vaccine to placebo volunteers
“Pfizer and its partner BioNTech plan to offer their COVID-19 vaccine to any clinical trial volunteer who received placebo by March 1, several months earlier than initially planned.”

The link between vaccine success and better crops

We’re starting the year with several COVID-19 vaccines and diagnostics making their way to patients around the world. How did we develop them so quickly—and what do these successes mean for future technology?

“Companies have been using their synthetic biology platforms to create DNA sequences of the virus for both testing and vaccine development,”BIO’s Connor McKoy told FarmWeekNow—which we’ve discussed here previously and in today’s health story and podcast.

And what we learn from this work on COVID-19 could impact seed and crop health—including accelerating development of “new seed varieties that resist disease and increase yields to market faster,” explains FarmWeek Now.

How so? “In the case of gene editing, they are tools that really give us the ability to make very precise, specific edits to the genome of the plant or animal,” said Dr. Clint Nesbitt, Senior Director of Science and Regulatory Affairs at BIO.

How precise? “Enough to create pandemic vaccines in less than a year, achieving federal government approval in record time,” says the report.

But we need “a regulatory process that is science-based, that’s appropriate, that builds trust in the products before they are brought to market,” concluded Dr. Nesbitt. “It involves a lot of good, open communication with the agricultural value chain, with growers, producers, food manufacturers, and with consumers so that they understand the values that are behind bringing these products to market.”

Want to know more about the science of gene editing?

LISTEN: BIO’s Dr. Clint Nesbitt and the American Seed Trade Association’s Dr. Fan-Li Chou discussed on a recent episode of the Illinois Farm Bureau podcast.

READ: Check out this list of 20 benefits of gene editing plus more content about the science behind gene edited products at www.innovature.com.

More Agriculture and Environment News:

Axios: 10 energy and climate issues to watch in 2021
“Expect Congress and Biden’s Energy Department to pour money and attention into new technologies, including hydrogen, carbon capture, advanced nuclear power, and energy storage.”

POLITICO: Biden set to supercharge clean energy push with $40B stash
“Biden, who oversaw the Obama administration’s stimulus work as vice president, unknowingly left himself a down-payment for the work ahead: $40 billion in unused Energy Department loan authority awarded under the 2009 stimulus.”

BIO Beltway Report