Neither diagnosis of cases of Covid-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, nor detection of environmental contamination by the virus are yet simple. Complicated techniques of molecular amplification, requiring serious infrastructure and biosafety procedures, limit people everywhere from knowing whether the virus is really in their environment or not.
The 'Do-It-Together SARS CoV-2 Detective' project, thanks to the support of JOGL and its international team of collaborators, has developed a strategy similar to that used for the ‘GMO Detective’ method, in order to detect the virus causing Covid-19. Done not only without complicated equipment but with a simple +/- readout, the #CoronaDetective is very specific. Furthermore, controls to ensure sensitive detection, without false positives or negatives, are intrinsic to this solution. The final product, strips of tubes with dry reagents, could be readily supplied anywhere, without cold-chain dependence; and monitoring tests could be run by ordinary people, without any background in medicine or biology, just some ability to follow simple instructions and common sense.
Human or clinical samples should only be run in settings with access to appropriate biosafety facilities, of course. This project is in full compliance with the OpenCovid-19 Initiative's Biosafety and Biosecurity Guidelines, and is fortunate to include appropriate labs for all levels of validation.
Using openly available information, we optimised components and have defined methods for anyone to use the Corona Detective.
Here are the protocols for making the Corona Detective tubes and for using them:
https://www.protocols.io/view/freeze-drying-lyophilization-and-manufacturing-of-bpv4mn8w
https://www.protocols.io/view/corona-detective-user-protocol-v2-0-bpwzmpf6
We are hoping to get more support from the 4th round of JOGL microgrants for these open science efforts, and look forward to demonstrating how well the method works in the XPRIZE semi-finals! The completed JOGL application (JOGL2_CoronaDetective_funding from 18oct2020) can be found in the 'Documents' section of this project page.
Your help is very welcome! -> also for the open science review... :)
See ''needs'' and also "news" for updates!
In brief: we hope that 1) the XPRIZE 'blinded proficiency test' goes smoothly, 2) 1000s of tubes will be sent to collaborators for further clinical validation, and 3) we can develop a triplex version of Corona Detective, to include flu virus detection.