The pictures from Italy were shocking and the fear of overcrowded emergency rooms also increased in Cologne. We were really worried that at some point the situation would develop as it has already in the Lombardy, region of Italy, said Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schermer, head of the nephrological research laboratory (Nephrolab) at CECAD.

Nephrolab used their expertise in molecular biology to develop an innovative rapid test to detect Sars-CoV-2 quickly, on site, and as accurately as a PCR-test. The test relies on the reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification method, or rtLAMP for short.

First positive results were available after just one to two weeks.  LAMP has been unjustly neglected until now, said Schermer. One reason is that the end product of the LAMP reaction is a wild mixture of DNA structures that cannot easily be used in further analyses and experiments. However, since further processing is not important in a rapid Corona test, this is not a disadvantage.

Nephrolab founded the start-up Detechgene which will optimize the test and bring it to market. The novel rapid test has potential and can also be extrapolate to determine pathogens of many other infections, including bacterial infections, in doctors’ offices or hospitals more quickly, and thus being able to start targeted therapies earlier.

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