Thermo Fisher Scientific today announced its new product to test for COVID-19 in wastewater.
Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, public health laboratories and researchers have been developing surveillance methods using wastewater to control the spread of COVID-19. The effort has helped identify asymptomatic carriers on college campuses to monitor regional spread among communities and capture emerging mutations ahead of potential future outbreaks. To support these efforts,
Unlike other testing methods, which require nasal swabs or saliva samples, wastewater testing can assess infection rates among a general population up to two weeks earlier than individual or pooled testing. Thermo Fisher’s new product, named the MagMAX Wastewater Ultra Nucleic Acid Isolation Kit, is easy to implement for labs that have just started incorporating SARS-CoV-2 testing into their surveillance programs.
"As COVID-19 perseveres as a global health threat, wastewater surveillance has become increasingly prevalent," said Ellie Mahjubi, vice president/general manager, Sample Preparation at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Labs need reliable, fast and scalable methods for monitoring viruses and other infectious agents in our communities.”
The product is compatible with a range of input volumes ranging from 200 µl to 500 mL, and works with various upfront concentration methods, including ultracentrifugation, precipitation and filtration. For labs in need of an automated viral enrichment method, the kits with virus enrichment use Dynabeads technology to streamline sample concentration.
SOURCE: Thermo Fisher Scientific
