Stacey Gabriel - January 20, 2021

Stacey Gabriel, PhD, Senior Director of the Genomics Platform, Institute Scientist, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, "Viral diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2: Setting up testing at massive scale"

Dr. Gabriel briefly described the fast development of a highly efficient laboratory platform for SARS-CoV2 viral diagnosis. Dr. Gabriel's group build up and gradually developed the testing platform based on a genome center with about 120 people since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. To meet the pandemic's testing demand, the group converted the lab with supply, equipment, and regulatory clearance in two weeks and then started the diagnostic testing with shifting in a 24x7 operation in March 2020. The modified-version RT-PCR assay was very sensitive and capable of detecting a wide range of viral load. At first, the group outreached and screened everyone in nursing homes and found that symptomatic and asymptomatic populations had a comparable viral load level. To increase the platform's testing capability, the group developed a simplified sampling (nasal swab plus no-liquid tube), automatic benchwork flow, and triple reporting software system, which enable the group to achieve an under-24-hour turnaround time. The work system was controlled, predictable, fast, and highly capable. Although the samples arrived at the lab unevenly during the day, the turnaround time was still low, at 14.8 hours on average. The group continued outreaching, screened the population in colleges and universities in summer and fall, and completed about 3.6 million tests with a 0.21% positive rate in the testing program for "New England" institutions. The surveillance testing cooperated with the COVID-19 control model of the colleges in the pandemic. Currently, the group performs the surveillance testing in K-12 schools and nursing homes with a "pooling" sampling strategy for the higher capacity. In summary, Dr. Gabriel's group has built up a powerful SARS-CoV2 viral diagnostic platform and achieved screening and surveillance goals in the community, nursing homes, colleges, and schools.