Pivots in pathogen detection:
Adapting to a rapidly evolving testing landscape

In late December 2019, an outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia appeared in a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Later identified as a novel beta-coronavirus and labeled SARS-CoV-2, no one could have foreseen the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic that followed and the scale of the response needed to help bring the situation under control.

Crucial to the initial response was a means to detect and diagnose infections rapidly and accurately, which in turn required a dramatic shift in clinical diagnostic assay development, and in patient sample collection and processing. Scientists and manufacturers alike working in pathogen detection and with PCR-based technologies had to pull together to think outside of the box with the tools available to meet the demand as the spread of the virus continued at an exponential rate.

Understandably, with the sudden increase in demand and the rapid expansion of testing menus, clinical testing laboratories became quickly overwhelmed. They had to be adaptable in order to increase their capacity and throughput, and leaned on the technologies supplied by manufacturers who were flexible and willing to adapt with them.

Fast forward to present day, and this collaborative approach between leading manufacturers, scientists, and clinical professionals has continued to prosper in many areas, expanding well beyond the scope of COVID-19 and the monitoring of variants, to supporting patient screening across a wide range of conditions.

In this interactive resource, we explore these partnerships in more detail, looking at specific accounts and triumphs at various timepoints, how technologies have evolved, and what the landscape of patient testing might look like going forward as the public health crisis evolves.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an early diagnosis quickly became one of the most important factors in disease prevention and transmission control.

It was critical that an effective and widely available method of diagnosis could be achieved to reduce the rate of transmission, to establish a relationship between symptoms and a positive SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, and to monitor the emergence of variants. Collaborative research groups comprised of researchers and clinical professionals began to work tirelessly to develop PCR-based molecular tests that could provide rapid, inexpensive, and high-throughput results.

Researchers from other backgrounds such as plant biology or agriculture, but with valuable expertise in pathogen detection and assay development, also found themselves working to support the human diagnostics sector. They often offered up their otherwise empty labs with existing PCR systems and re-purposed them for population-scale COVID-19 testing.

To help bring all these solutions to fruition, scientists had to partner with manufacturers that could offer a hands-on approach to working with their customers, along with the expertise and manufacturing platforms that could deliver a customized product with repeatability and consistent performance. In the interviews below, we explore a few examples of these partnerships and how providers were able to adapt to frequent changes in testing demand.