Robotic platform boost for Covid-19 tests

Developed in nine days by Professor Paul Freemont and colleagues from the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), the breakthrough is expected to increase the UK’s capacity to test for Covid-19.

MORE COVID-19 TECHNOLOGY NEWS FROM THE ENGINEER

Currently, around 10,000 tests for coronavirus are being done each day in the UK, with the government aiming to increase this to 100,000 per day by the end of April, 2020.

Each robotic module can process almost 1,000 coronavirus samples in a 12-hour period using the same Covid-19 tests being used by the NHS, but processing more samples simultaneously with a range of different reagents. The platform is being accredited and approved, and last week began testing samples at two NHS hospitals in London, which have one robotic module each.

Having completed validation on 251 real-life samples in blind testing, the platform began testing patient samples on April 6, 2020 and is now ready to be rolled out on a larger scale, for which the UK DRI is now looking for support.