Working with West China Hospital of Sichuan University and CapitalBio Corporation, Professor Cheng Jing’s team from Tsinghua University School of Medicine successfully developed a testing kit for nucleic acid detection of COVID-19, the first in the world to detect 6 types of respiratory virus, including the novel coronavirus, within 1.5 hours.

Except for the novel coronavirus, this testing kit can detect 5 other viruses at more than twice the speed of other licensed single-type virus detection kits. This helps to speed up differential diagnosis of viruses with similar symptoms.

-       Faster: It reduces the detection time to only 1.5 hours, while each unit can detect 16 samples simultaneously

-       More comprehensive: It can detect as many as 6 viruses, reducing misdiagnosis and medical expenses by distinguishing common flu from novel coronavirus infection

-       Safer: It effectively protects medical staff from infection based on immediate sterilizationwith a preservative solution and a closed environment,.

So far, the invention has been greenlighted by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) as emergency medical equipment, and will soon be applied against the epidemic, providing rapid, accurate and efficient diagnosis for frontline medical professionals.

Soon after NMPA approval, Tsinghua University provided 4 sets of testing equipment for Wuhan and donated testing chips and reagent for 12,000 persons, worth 5 million yuan. The equipment will be used for novel coronavirus diagnosis in Wuhan hospitals, including Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Hospital, and the makeshift Huoshenshan Hospital.

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Invention | Tsinghua against COVID-19: Testing kit speeds up diagnosis

Translator: Fu Peiyue

Editor: Lin Lu, Jeremy Tai