When the pandemic hit, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard quickly converted its research lab into a mass coronavirus testing facility. Now, it's running about 7% of the nation's total of about 1 million tests per day. commonhealth
The goal is to hit over 100,000 tests a day soon, said Stacey Gabriel, who oversees all the testing. The ramp-up is challenging, she said, but it's working. "I think we’re all learning a lot, together with our users," she said.
"None of this has been done before. College campuses have never ordered thousands of diagnostic tests for their students every day before."The institute is known as a powerhouse of theof genomics — DNA research seeking to understand diseases like schizophrenia and cancer. Its building at 320 Charles houses its collection of machines for analyzing DNA, believed to be the biggest in the country. Normally, they’re used almost entirely for research.Dr. Deborah Hung, a leading researcher at the Broad Institute and in infectious disease doctor at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Testing just wasn’t there as we needed it," said Dr. Deborah Hung, a leading researcher at the Broad and an infectious disease doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As the pandemic was just starting to hit in Boston, she had a very frustrating time arranging a test for a patient."I can say that it consumed probably almost 12 hours to make things happen," she said."Twelve continuous hours of my making phone calls." On the morning of March 9, Hung ran into her colleague, Michael Mina, an expert on diagnostic testing. She’d just heard him talk about the need for more coronavirus testing in a radio interview, and the two discussed what it would take to do large-scale testing: high-throughput robotics. Expertise handling the samples. And a certified lab that could do the type of tests needed. "And when you think about it that way, there are not that many institutions where all of those converge," Hung said."And so I would say, literally it was two seconds to click." From her car, Hung called Gabriel at the Broad Genomics Platform, to broach the idea of using its DNA machines for coronavirus testing."My next phone call was to Eric, knowing that he had to approve, essentially, what I was proposing," Hung said.Broad Institute President Eric Lander have to do this, you have to let Stacey do this,’ she told me. And I really didn’t have a choice. I said, ‘Of course.’" He figured Gabriel and her team were already running a top DNA analysis center,"and they knew how to take any process and make it automated and efficient and inexpensive," Lander said."And so all I had to do was say yes, and basically over a three-day weekend they came back with a plan for doing high-throughput COVID testing."began, even though it wasn’t clear yet how bad the pandemic would get, Hung said. "There are not many institutions where I could pick up the phone, make two phone calls, based simply on my personal assessment, and have people mobilize and say, ‘Let’s evaluate this,’ and then really rapidly say, ‘Let’s just do this.’" she said."It was all a leap of faith." In April, as COVID-19 cases and deaths mounted, the institute was running over a thousand tests a day from nursing homes, homeless shelters and hospitals. At first, many samples were messy. "We were receiving tubes that were leaking and sometimes floating in water from ice packs, and wet paper that was really hard to read," Gabriel said.These days,"Those tubes come in a very standardized way," Gabriel said."It’s very clean. There’s a bar-code. There’s an automated flow of information. And it has just been enabling." The testing facility runs 24/7. It has brought on more than 200 new employees since May and is still hiring, she said — especially for the night shift.
Please follow us on Google to support us United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
U.S. stocks fall after Trump tests positive for coronavirusWall Street stocks fall in early trading Friday after President Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
Read more »
After Trump's COVID result, a running list of everyone being tested and their resultsRepublican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tested positive, Barron, Ivanka and Jared tested negative for coronavirus.
Read more »
Joe Biden Has Tested Negative For COVID-19President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, just days after debating Biden.
Read more »
Patriots QB Cam Newton reportedly tests positive for coronavirusNew England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus and will not play Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Read more »
Cam Newton reportedly tests positive for coronavirus; Patriots-Chiefs game postponedNew England quarterback Cam Newton reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus, and the Patriots' game versus the Chiefs will not be played Sunday.
Read more »