Rapid and portable tests for COVID-19: UniSR partner of the CORONADX project

A project funded by the European Commission with the aim of developing diagnostic test kits to face the COVID-19 emergency, and also be useful at the end of the pandemic.

This is CORONADX, a Horizon 2020 project that aims which aims at delivering three swift, portable and price-competitive tools for on-site diagnosis of coronavirus to ensure fast case detection and surveillance.

CORONADX was born from an international collaboration involving prestigious research centers, including the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, which will coordinate a specific work package to investigate epidemiological aspects, as well as socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. Responsible for this research area will be Prof. Carlo Signorelli, Full Professor of Hygiene and Director of the School of Specialization in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine UniSR and Prof. Anna Odone, Associate of General and Applied Hygiene UniSR and Teacher at the same School.

The three tests that will be developed are PATHAG, PATHPOD and PATHLOCK; detection is fast (ranging from 10-20 seconds of PATHAG to less than an hour for PATHLOCK) and are suitable as first line screening (e.g. in airports and home quarantine settings) and second line (in mobile clinics and community health centres).

Early diagnosis and reporting have a profound effect on control and prevention during outbreaks. CORONADX is setting a new paradigm for early detection of COVID-19 by providing one ‘front line’ and two ‘second line’ point-of-care (POC) diagnostic solutions, saving valuable time and easing pressure on centralized testing laboratories. The POC diagnostics requires little instruction and can be applied in the field. Diagnosis is available in less than an hour. The solution is ideal for primary healthcare clinics in remote areas with little infrastructure.

Prof. Signorelli comments:

Our work, within the project, will lead us to study the epidemiological dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic in different contexts and to estimate the impact of different surveillance and diagnostic models.

Prof. Odone concludes:

The prospect of rapid diagnostic tests - with adequate sensitivity - is winning, both in terms of epidemic containment, and for the undoubted advantages on the organization of prevention services and on social and economic repercussions.

More details are available on the website: http://coronadx-project.eu/