Reis de Andrade Joana, Scourfield Edward, Peswani-Sajnani Shilpa Lekhraj, Poulton Kate, Ap Rees Thomas, Khooshemehri Paniz, Doherty George, Ong Stephanie, Ivan Iustina-Francisca, Goudarzi Negin, Gardiner Isaac, Caine Estelle, Maguire Thomas J A, Leightley Daniel, Torrico Luis, Gasulla Alex, Menendez-Vazquez Angel, Ortega-Prieto Ana Maria, Pickering Suzanne, Jimenez-Guardeño Jose M, Batra Rahul, Rubinchik Sona, Tan Aaron V F, Griffin Amy, Sherrin David, Papaioannou Stelios, Trouillet Celine, Mischo Hannah E, Giralt Victoriano, Wilson Samantha, Kirk Martin, Neil Stuart J D, Galao Rui Pedro, Martindale Jo, Curtis Charles, Zuckerman Mark, Razavi Reza, Malim Michael H, Martinez-Nunez Rocio T
Research Management and Innovation Directorate, KCL TEST, King's College London, London, UK.
Department of Infectious Diseases, King's College London, London, UK.
Biol Methods Protoc. 2024 Jun 20;9(1):bpae046. doi: 10.1093/biomethods/bpae046. eCollection 2024.
Rapid and accessible testing was paramount in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our university established KCL TEST: a SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic testing programme that enabled sensitive and accessible PCR testing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in saliva. Here, we describe our learnings and provide our blueprint for launching diagnostic laboratories, particularly in low-resource settings. Between December 2020 and July 2022, we performed 158277 PCRs for our staff, students, and their household contacts, free of charge. Our average turnaround time was 16 h and 37 min from user registration to result delivery. KCL TEST combined open-source automation and in-house non-commercial reagents, which allows for rapid implementation and repurposing. Importantly, our data parallel those of the UK Office for National Statistics, though we detected a lower positive rate and virtually no delta wave. Our observations strongly support regular asymptomatic community testing as an important measure for decreasing outbreaks and providing safe working spaces. Universities can therefore provide agile, resilient, and accurate testing that reflects the infection rate and trend of the general population. Our findings call for the early integration of academic institutions in pandemic preparedness, with capabilities to rapidly deploy highly skilled staff, as well as develop, test, and accommodate efficient low-cost pipelines.
快速且可及的检测在新冠疫情管理中至关重要。我们大学设立了KCL TEST：一项针对新冠病毒的无症状检测计划，该计划能够对唾液中的新冠病毒RNA进行灵敏且可及的聚合酶链反应（PCR）检测。在此，我们描述我们的经验教训，并提供启动诊断实验室的蓝图，尤其是在资源匮乏地区。在2020年12月至2022年7月期间，我们为教职工、学生及其家庭接触者免费进行了158277次PCR检测。从用户注册到结果交付，我们的平均周转时间为16小时37分钟。KCL TEST结合了开源自动化和内部非商业试剂，这使得能够快速实施和重新利用。重要的是，我们的数据与英国国家统计局的数据相似，尽管我们检测到的阳性率较低且几乎没有德尔塔毒株。我们的观察结果有力地支持定期进行无症状社区检测，这是减少疫情爆发和提供安全工作空间的一项重要措施。因此，大学能够提供反映普通人群感染率和趋势的灵活、有弹性且准确的检测。我们的研究结果呼吁学术机构尽早融入大流行防范工作，具备迅速部署高技能人员的能力，以及开发、测试和采用高效低成本流程的能力。
