Doctor developed fast COVID-19 test method
Andrew Brooks, a research professor at Rutgers University who developed the first saliva test for COVID-19, died Jan. 23 in Manhattan. He was 51.
The cause was a heart attack, his sister, Janet Green, said.
In April, when COVID-19 tests were scarce and lines to get them were long, Brooks made worldwide news when the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency approval to his technique, which promised to radically increase the speed and safety of the testing process.
“Instead of having a naso- or oropharyngeal swab that’s placed in your nose or the back of your throat, you simply have to spit in a tube,” he told Bill Hemmer of Fox News, adding, “It doesn’t require a health care worker to collect it 6 inches away from an infected person.”
In the 10 months since Brooks received approval, health care workers have performed more than 4 million tests using his approach, and it remains one of the most reliable means of determining whether someone has COVID-19.
In a statement after Brooks’ death, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey called him “one of the state’s unsung heroes” who “undoubtedly saved lives.”
Andrew Ira Brooks was born on Feb. 10, 1969, in Bronxville, N.Y. His father, Perry H. Brooks, was a diamond setter. His mother, Phyllis (Heitner) Brooks, was a teacher.
In addition to his sister, he is survived by his mother; his wife, Jil (Larsen) Brooks, and three daughters, Lauren, Hannah and Danielle. His first two marriages ended in divorce.
Brooks grew up in Old Bridge, N.J., where he earned spending money by performing magic shows at birthday parties. After a summer internship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, he became fascinated with the study of disease. He received a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Rochester in 2000.
After working at the University of Rochester Medical Center for four years, he returned to New Jersey to take a job at Rutgers and in 2009 joined its Cell and DNA Repository, a universityowned company that provides data management and analysis for biological research.
Brooks became the company’s chief operating officer and discovered he had a flair for the business side of science. He grew the company from just a few dozen employees to nearly 250, working with nearly every major pharmaceutical company, among other clients.
“Most scientists I meet are not interested, or are incidentally interested, in the commercialization of what they do,” said Jay Tischfield, a Rutgers professor and chief executive of the repository. “Andy understood that if you want something to get out and be used, you have to be a player. You can’t rely on other people.”
In 2018, the company, by then called the Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository Infinite Biologics, decided to go private, with Brooks as the new chief executive. The university agreed but kept a significant stake in the new company, now called Infinity Biologix.
The resources and experience he accrued at the repository made it relatively easy for Brooks to develop the COVID-19 spit test, which he did in partnership with two other companies, Spectrum Solutions and Accurate Diagnostics Labs.
As important as the actual saliva test was, it was Brooks’ ability to rapidly scale up the operation — in the middle of taking it private — that most impressed Tischfield.
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years and I’ve met all kinds of people,” he said. “But Andy, he was a force of nature.”