Developing a Rapid Test Kit for Coronavirus Antibodies

Sarah Brown: Hello, welcome to Short Talks From the Hill, a podcast at the University of Arkansas. My name is Sarah Brown. I’m an administrative assistant and communications specialist here at the University. Today I’m talking with Dr. Shannon Servoss, an associate professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering, and she also serves as the co-director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. Her previous research topics include the development of peptoid-based biomimetic materials for biomedical and environmental use. Innovations in these areas can be applied in public health and water availability. From August 2019 to August 2020, Dr. Servoss worked with Now Diagnostics in Springdale, Arkansas, to develop a rapid test kit that detects coronavirus antibodies. She is here today to tell us more about the process and what’s next for this project. Welcome, Dr. Servoss.

Shannon Servoss: Thank you so much for having me.

SB: So let’s get started talking about the process of putting together the test kit. What information and materials are needed for the researchers to begin work on the test kit?

SS: So, Now Diagnostics already has several Adexis DX tests available for detecting different diseases and components in blood. So the step was incremental for creating the COVID-19 test. We just needed to find the right proteins to put on the membrane within the test to be able to transfer the knowledge to COVID-19 instead of the existing tests they have.

SB: So I’ve heard that you have deemed last year as the craziest sabbatical ever. Can you explain what you mean by that?

SS: Absolutely. So I started out the year, like most sabbaticals, I had a given project that I was going to be working on. I was working on an influenza detection test. It was actually a joint technology between Now Diagnostics and with Dr. Bob Beitle, and so I was going to further develop this and hopefully by the end of the year have a test for influenza. As we entered December, it became obvious that there was something going on that we might need to consider. We started looking at the technology I was developing for influenza to consider whether it could be transferred to this new virus that we didn’t even have a name for at the time and that didn’t really seem possible, so we kind of set that aside. And we got into January. There are a lot more cases. It was now in the U.S., and so we were like yeah, maybe we need to think about what we need to do. And then in February it hit in Italy, and that hit close to home for Now Diagnostics because that’s where their European headquarters are. And so when they were getting hit the hardest in Italy, we realized we have to do something. And so that’s when Kevin came to me and asked if I would completely switch directions and change over to a COVID-19 project instead of the influenza project. It was a big switch. It was a different technology that I was working on, and it meant a lot different hours. Up until February, I was working sort of fifty fifty as a University professor and then at Now Diagnostics, and I was able to have regular meetings with my students. I was catching up on all of my writing. Everything was going fantastic. And then when I started this COVID-19 project, it all sort of fell apart. So obviously I continued the regular meeting with my graduate students, but all of those writing projects fell to the wayside. Right, the normal things that faculty members think of as being fabulous about sabbatical, like catching up and getting more grant proposals submitted, just weren’t possible because I was working full time trying to get this test developed. So yeah, it was a crazy sabbatical, but really great in a lot of ways, but definitely not what I had expected when I went into it.

SB: Yeah, so I think your story is a great example of how researchers have to be flexible with their projects. What are your thoughts about researchers’ ability to be nimble with their research?

SS: I think this pandemic really brought that to the forefront for a lot of researchers across many, you know, not just in academics, but in industry as well. If you look at Pfizer and Moderna and Johnson and Johnson and all the companies that completely pivoted their direction, it was really necessary for everybody to think about, in a bigger scale, what skill set do you have that can help in the current crisis that we’re in? And so in this line, my research coming back to the university has changed in a lot of ways. I have a number of projects related to COVID-19. I would guess that in the future I will continue working in viral detection, which was something I’d sort of dabbled in before, but I hadn’t really gotten into. Now I have a lot more experience with that, and so I’ll probably move forward with that, which will put me in a great position for these, so with these crisis events, when we have a pandemic, you know, I can just shift something that I’m working on to the new virus or bacteria, if it may be, to make that transition. But absolutely researchers need to be as nimble as possible and not just when it comes to a pandemic, but even just the funding in general, you have to be able to adapt to what where the funding is going to keep your research lab funded.

SB: Right, yes, and just the fact that we live in a changing environment, I guess, should be in consideration, especially when taking on a task.

SS: Yes. Absolutely, that would be fantastic.

SB: So let’s talk about the kit. It is currently being approved by the FDA, correct?

SS: That is correct. It’s under consideration for an emergency use authorization. So we submitted the EUA on May 29th of 2020, so it has been a while. It is currently being sold in Europe, Saudi Arabia, and I believe I’ve been told it’s being sold in Africa as well, so they’ve gotten the CE Mark, which allows them to sell it in Europe, which is equivalent, from what I understand… I was talking to a pharmaceutical person recently. They said it’s equivalent to getting the FDA approval, so it’s not a minor process. So I don’t think they foresee any issues. I was told recently that they’re at the sort of any day now phase, which means that they have talked with people at the FDA and it’s being reviewed. But it any day now could be any day between now and who knows what. So this first approval is for clinical use, and so it would need to be administered through your clinic. It would still be a rapid test. It runs in 15 to 30 minutes. and so you would have results very quickly, but this initial phase is only for clinical use. There’s a separate process they’ll need to go to get the over-the-counter approval.

SB: Now this is not a vaccine, it is an antibiotic test kit. So who would be most interested in using one of these?

SS: Right, so at this point, since we have vaccines, there’s now two groups of people. So when we first developed this, it was can we find out who has already been infected with COVID-19, so who’s already had the virus and who may have immunity to it. At this point, it can also be used for who has actually developed antibodies to the vaccine, and so there are sort of two cohorts that are interested in this at this point.

SB: Can you tell us how this test works?

SS: So the test is a small device, something similar to what you would use to test your glucose levels, but much smaller than that, actually, because it’s a throwaway device. And you just use a simple finger prick similar to the lancets you would use for a diabetes test and drop your blood into the end of the test. The blood will run up through the membrane and within 15 to 30 minutes you’ll see a result. If you have two lines, it’s positive if you have one line, it’s negative, similar to the standard pregnancy tests that we’re used to.

SB: Yeah, if one were to get a positive result would they need to quarantine? What would be the steps after a positive result?

SS: There are no steps after a positive result, so this is an antibody test, so it does not mean that you are currently infected. It does mean that at some point in the past you have been infected, and you’ve developed antibodies to SARS-Cov-2.

SB: How did this experience help you in your career and my teaching and lab work and further on?

SS: That’s a great question. I’ve been thinking about that a lot as I prepare my annual review. Like I said, it’s been a crazy year, and I shifted from a project that had potential for publications and patenting to a project that doesn’t have a whole lot of that. There’s nothing new to patent out of this, and we obviously don’t want to publish initially. What has happened, though, is like I mentioned before, I have more viral projects in my lab, so I’m working with Bob Beitle and Audi Thompson on a Covid-related project. I’m going to continue the influenza project, so I’m working right now… I have a graduate student that’s starting now and will start working on that, along with the Covid project. And I think, for the most part, it’s just made me think a little about how research the different ways to do research. So I’d never finished a project in three months before. That was a big deal, and it’s different than the way I’ve ever thought about things in academics. And quite frankly, if you’d left me to my own devices, I would still be trying to make it perfect. It’s who I am as an academic and it would have just kept going and going and going. So I think when I look at projects now… Now I think a little bit more about what is the end point, right? Where do I need to get to, and what is good enough versus, you know, the ultimate perfection of everything that we could put together. As far as teaching, I don’t know that it’s really changed the way that I teach it, yet I have some classes that I will probably incorporate some of what I learned at Now Diagnostics into the class. As well as we were… Bob and I were invited to speak at the Honors Symposium, so we’re going to teach one class of that, the.. and I can’t remember exactly what the Covid topic is… There’s a Covid special topics during the summer interim session that we will be teaching one day of from the chemical engineering standpoint. And that’s something I think that’s great for chemical engineers that came out of this pandemic is when you look at everything that’s had to happen to sort of meet all of these needs, it’s… There are chemical engineers involved at every step of the way. Chemical engineers were involved with the testing for both antibodies, anagen and DNA or RNA testing, and chemical engineers were highly involved in the process of developing the vaccines that are being distributed by Pfizer and Moderna and all the others that are under investigation and currently looking for approval. So I think it’s a great example to show our students and say hey, look, this is a way to be involved with more than just, you know, the oil industry or the chemical industry. The things that are more traditionally considered to be chemical engineering.

SB: Do you have any advice for researchers, especially those who are considering the academic fields of their career?

SS: That’s a really great question. I think that my advice to scientists, especially those looking at the academic field, would be to, you know, be nimble. Like we mentioned earlier, it’s important to be able to shift your research and the direction necessary for the current environment, whether that’s the funding environment, if there’s a global pandemic, if it’s climate change, whatever it may be. Being able to shift your research for the needs that we have at the moment is really important. My other advice is just have fun with it. If it’s your passion, it will be fun. You’ll enjoy what you’re doing and hopefully you can see beyond the parts of it that you don’t enjoy as much to really get more of the parts that are your passion and that you can truly enjoy.

SB: Well, that’s all the time we have today. Thank you for coming on the podcast, Shannon.

SS: Thank you.

Matt McGowan: Music for Short Talks From the Hill was written and performed by local musician Ben Harris. For more information and additional podcasts, visit Arkansas Research. That’s arkansasresearch.uark.edu, the home of science and research news at the University of Arkansas.