COVID-19 RESPONSES FROM EUGEF RESEARCH GROUP

March 2020

A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE FAST-AND-EASY DETECTION OF COVID-19 INFECTION

A scientific consortium consisting of Bangladeshi research group Eukaryotic Gene Expression and Function (EuGEF) Research Group and Australian XING Technologies is going to unveil an accelerated research program to bring a rapid and easy diagnostic system for the COVID-19 infection to Bangladesh. EuGEF Research Group and XING Technologies have been working together to conduct medical science research to answer major questions of national health disparities under the direction of Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC). Likewise, the aforesaid research program happens due to a timely initiative of the BMRC in the transition to the COVID-19 pandemic. This breakthrough detection method allows the diagnosis of infectious COVID-19 within minutes to detect the disease even at the very early phases of infection such as when there are no symptoms. The reagents used in this method are created using modern nanotechnology expertise, which facilitates the precise detection of COVID-19 causing novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) by binding to its receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the Spike glycoprotein that projected outwards (see picture below). The reagents are designed based on the previous patent-relevant application WO 2014/093357 which has been granted by The Australian (AU2013359469) and European (EP2013863100) offices with national review by the US Office (US 2015-0377880) and is being conjointly developed under ISO 13485 and TGA/FDA/EMA roadmaps. The diagnostic process has been validated in laboratory tests with verification analysis on the inactivated virus from nasal wash material rather than from artificial sequences.  The application for a rapid clinical trial in Bangladesh has been sent to the National Research Ethics Committee (NREC) under the BMRC, which is currently awaiting final approval. With the approval of the NREC, BMRC will coordinate among various agencies and departments of the Bangladesh Government to announce the identification of the aforesaid detection system.

April 2021

INTO THE FINAL STAGE OF VALIDATION

From the very beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, Eukaryotic Gene Expression and function (EuGEF) Research Group is working continuously with its collaborator XING Technologies in Australia to develop a rapid antigen detection kit for the rapid management of COVID-19 cases. For a rapid clinical trial in Bangladesh, an application was already been submitted to National Research Ethics Committee (NREC) under the BMRC a couple of months ago. With the approval of the NREC, BMRC is now coordinating among various agencies and departments of the Bangladesh Government to facilitate the clinical trial of the aforesaid detection system. Two of the prominent research institute of Bangladesh contributing to management of COVID-19 in Bangladesh from the very beginning, Bangladesh Institute of Tropical & Infectious Disease (BITID) and Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) are involved in this clinical trial. Fixed amount of kits are already been handed over to the authority of BITID and CHRF to run the clinical trial. EuGEF research fellows are directly helping the BITID and CHRF authorities to smoothen the process. An optimistic result is expected from both of the centers within a few days. As it takes several minutes to detect COVID-19 with this fast and easy detection kit, it may have an immense contribution to the management of vaccination and post vaccination period of COVID-19 pandemic.