Mac researchers rush their coronavirus tool to market
‘Fortuitous timing’ that work began on technology months ago
Last summer, McMaster University biochemistry and biomedical sciences researchers happened to be working on new technology to isolate respiratory viruses in patients.
They designed a new “tool” to better track a virus, and determine how it transmits between people and if it is evolving. They tested it in computer labs. And then, as 2020 dawned, the COVID-19 outbreak mushroomed in central China.
The intersection of research and sudden demand for the technology was “fortuitous timing,” said Andrew McArthur, an associate professor at McMaster and member of the school’s infectious disease research institute.
“When the first genome sequence was coming out of China, we had the technology designed for this specific virus within two weeks.”
He likens the tool to a “molecular fish hook”: a coronavirus patient coughs a mucous sample that contains cells, DNA, natural bacteria — and the virus. The McMaster tool, which is composed of synthetic DNA, extracts only the virus for examination.
“You only need to sequence that tiny bit you are looking for,” he told The Spectator. “(The tool) is not used for diagnosis; this goes beyond diagnosis to determine how it transmits and if it is becoming more virulent.”
A similar “molecular fishing tool” was used by McMaster’s Hendrik Poinar in his work to determine the bacterium that resulted in the Black Death in the 14th century. (Poinar is also one of the authors of the newest study.)
Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the new tool was not
submitted for traditional academic review and clinical evaluation. Instead, McMaster officials elected to release the technology immediately to epidemiologists to be tested and used around the world.
To date the virus has been diagnosed in patients on every continent but Antarctica, and killed 2,800 people.
Rushing a technology to market like this is a first at McMaster, underscoring the urgency of the situation.
“We are depending on others to do the validation (of the technology), and hopefully it can be validated quickly,” said McArthur.
He said the team will continue to test the technology, in collaboration with researchers at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, but McArthur is confident in their work.
“In part we’re relying on our track record of knowing what we are doing,” he said in a release. “But we’re also relying on people who have the virus samples in hand being able to do the validation experiment so that it’s reliable.”