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I’m excited to share the @igisci saliva-based assay for SARS-CoV-2 detection, now on #medRxiv. We developed a fully robotic saliva sample RNA extraction pipeline for asymptomatic infection surveillance in the UC Berkeley campus community. (1/4) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.10.21249151v1
Saliva is a challenging sample matrix! Some saliva samples are thick and viscous making accurate pipetting, especially by a robot, difficult. (Please stay hydrated, people!) We're not the only ones who have discovered the trials of saliva-based testing this year… (2/4)
...The NYTimes even wrote an article about how difficult it is to work with self-collected saliva samples. We overcame problems with saliva through a combination of heating, dilution & lots of R&D. Check out our manuscript for more details. (3/4) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/health/coronavirus-saliva-tests.html
We launched our saliva test last summer to enable the IGI-FAST research study, which assessed campus asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. Findings from IGI-FAST are also now available in a paired, public health-focused manuscript by @ajehrenberg (4/4) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.24.21250385v1
Setting up the saliva test and IGI-FAST was a huge effort tackled by MANY folks, including @AbbyLabbyUC, @connortsuchida, @enrique_lins, @TsuiKimberly, Kathleen Pestal, @holly_gildea, @LeaWitkowsky, Erica Moehle, Shana McDevitt, @ajehrenberg @UrnovFyodor @doudna_lab 
