UNLV making viral transport medium for coronavirus testing
The transport mediums are helping the Southern Nevada Health District with its testing process.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — It’s all hands on deck in the fight against the coronavirus.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is helping with a vital part of coronavirus testing – making sure test specimens get to the labs undamaged.
“It was definitely something we could help out with at UNLV. We had all of the resources necessary", said Helen Wing, a Life Sciences professor at UNLV.
They’re making viral transport medium, a saline type solution mixed with test samples, and used as a preservative.
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“They have to put it in a liquid to transport that sample to public labs for testing. The liquid is in very short national supply and we’re making it,” said Wing, who is leading the way on the project.
That liquid is carried in a vial.
“It’s absolutely essential that the sample is preserved,” Wing said. “Certainly there would be some issues if the specimen wasn’t taken. If there were sterility issues or something like that, which could impact the test.”
The transport medium is helping the Southern Nevada Health District with its testing process.
Wing says they’ve made thousands of vials of the solution already and have ramped up production to meet the testing needs of the community.
“Probably about 7,000 (vials) because we’ve been doing small batches as our initial trials and now, we’re bulking up to hit 5,000 a week,” she said.
For Wing, working together is key to getting through this pandemic.
“We’ve got to bulk up our testing, so this seems like a very important thing to be doing,” she said.
They plan to continue making viral transport medium as long as the demand is there.
