MOSCOW (MRC) -- 3M announced today that it has partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers to develop a rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19, said Chemweek.
The goal is a new, highly accurate, mass-produced low-cost diagnostic device that delivers results in minutes, the company adds. The test would detect viral antigens and deliver highly accurate results within minutes via a paper-based device. The test could be administered at the point-of-care and would not need to be sent to labs.
The effort draws on 3M’s expertise in biomaterials and bioprocessing and global medical device manufacturing. The 3M team is led by scientists and manufacturing and regulatory experts from its corporate research laboratories and health care business group. The research team at MIT is led by Professor Hadley Sikes at the Institute’s Department of Chemical Engineering. The Sikes lab specializes in the creation and development of molecular technologies to improve the performance of rapid, cellulose-based protein tests.
"We are excited to collaborate with Professor Hadley Sikes and the team at MIT. Our approach is ambitious, but our collective expertise can make a difference for people around the world, so we owe it to ourselves and society to give it our best effort,” says John Banovetz, 3M Senior Vice President for Innovation and Stewardship and Chief Technology Officer.
The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) selected the rapid COVID-19 test for accelerated development and commercialization support. The test is in the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Tech (RADx Tech) program, an aggressively-paced COVID-19 diagnostics initiative from the NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. RADx Tech’s phased innovation funnel is initially supporting a four-week period of intense research to demonstrate the test concept works and can be commercialized on a large scale. The project received $500,000 in validation funding from RADx Tech and is eligible for further investment in later stages of the development funnel.
“There is a pressing need for a highly scalable rapid test,” Sikes said. “We are working with our colleagues at 3M to overcome the challenges to move this research from lab to impact, and find an innovative path forward to manufacture it at scale. Joining forces with 3M and the NIH has greatly enhanced our collective efforts toward swift detection of the virus, and a potential tool to help mitigate and contain this public health crisis."
The teams at 3M and MIT believe a diagnostic test can be deployed once validated. Manufacturing equipment can be scaled to produce millions of units per day.
As MRC informed earlier, SIBUR and 3M have signed an agreement to cooperate in product development and polymer recycling at SIBUR’s PolyLab. Thanks to their durability, strength, eco-friendliness and other advantages, such polymers as polyethylene and polypropylene are some of the most widely used synthetic materials, popular with the construction, utilities, automotive, healthcare, food and other industries.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
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