DeviceDiagnosticInnovation Lab-free COVID-19 test trialled in London hospitals

DnaNudge’s rapid, lab-free COVID-19 test, developed by Imperial College London’s Regius Professor of Engineering Chris Toumazou, offers gold-standard accuracy and sample-to-result in around an hour. The test is now being rolled out in urgent patient care settings following approval for clinical use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), granted at the end of April after successful patient trials. The DnaNudge test achieves sensitivity of 98% and specificity of 100%.

The DnaNudge test does not need a laboratory, delivers gold-standard accuracy, and requires no pre-processing or manual steps (the sample is inserted directly into the cartridge). Crucially, it also includes a unique control feature that indicates swab efficacy, and whether a re-test is required.

Professor Chris Toumazou, from the NIHR Imperial BRC Genetics & Genomics Theme, founder of Imperial College’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Regius Professor of Engineering and CEO of DnaNudge commented: “The truly ground-breaking innovations in this DnaNudge test are its high level of accuracy and its throughput of around an hour – direct from sample to result, with no manual steps required. This makes it the only non-lab, non-human interaction Point-of-Care solution available, and this is why it is being rapidly adopted by senior clinicians to deliver fast, reliable results that make a huge difference to the care and safety of both patients and staff.”

Professor Graham Cooke, NIHR Research Professor of Infectious Diseases and Deputy Theme Lead for the Infection & AMR Theme for the NIHR Imperial BRC said: “This is one of the most exciting technologies I’ve seen in this area, particularly because it avoids the need for any sample handling. Our early results are very encouraging and now we need to see how the test performs in different clinical settings and understand where it might have the biggest impact on care at this critical time.”

The DnaNudge COVID-19 test has been adapted from the DnaNudge in-store DNA testing service, which was launched to consumers last year. The service focuses on nutrition, analysing and mapping users’ genetic profile to key nutrition-related health traits.

Read the full story by Joanna Wilson, Imperial College London here.