Professor Masafumi Yooda, Department of Biofunctional Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Professor Tetsuya Mizutani, International Center for Livestock Infectious Disease Control and Education, Faculty of Agriculture, and Precision System Science Co., Ltd. At the same time, we confirmed the possibility of rapid diagnostic technology for the new corona virus "COVID-19".
For "COVID-19", diagnosis by PCR test and minimization of contact are indispensable to prevent virus transmission and spread that are difficult to treat, and it is necessary to establish a border test system.However, sample testing institutions in various regions place a heavy load on daily emergency PCR tests, and automation of tests and stabilization of accuracy have become major issues.
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Department of Biofunctional Science, Graduate School of Engineering) and Precision System Science have conducted joint research on nucleic acid extraction and functional analysis using magnetic materials, and the company has fully automated real-time PCR from nucleic acid extraction. "System" was developed.This system is designed to automatically perform PCR tests performed at research institutes and hospitals accurately, quickly, and easily, and is already a general-purpose system that can handle dengue fever, Zika fever, Ebola fever, West Nile virus, malaria, etc. It has been commercialized as a highly reliable system.
This time, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (International Center for Livestock Infectious Disease Control and Education, Faculty of Agriculture) and the company have taken advantage of these results and immediately set the test reagents for "COVID-19" and the reaction optimization conditions for the geneLEAD system. do.With the introduction of the system, extraction and purification of viral nucleic acid from nasopharyngeal swab, which requires labor and greatly affects accuracy, PCR measurement and judgment of results are fully automated, and the sample is also managed by bar code management, so it is a burden on the site. Expected to be mitigated.
Based on the results of this project, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology hopes to contribute to the rapid diagnosis of "COVID-19" in cooperation with inspection organizations.In addition, as a countermeasure against serious infectious diseases that are expected to occur in the future, a highly operable PCR testing system that can respond quickly is indispensable, and we aim to build a system that is the first in the world.
