COVID-19 massive surveillance testing

A collective effort to stop COVID-19 and future pandemics

We have mobilized in collaboration with SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University – University Hospital of Brooklyn in a commitment to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and help answer the many unknown questions about this deadly virus. While we research these unknowns, the near-term solution to mitigating the spread of the pandemic is: Massive Surveillance Testing and Contact Tracing.

We are working on accelerating and automating testing methods while decreasing costs by testing micro populations together as a unit. By performing massive surveillance screenings, we envision the creation of a pipeline to perform pooled population-based testing that will:

quickly identify positive cases
cut the cost of testing dramatically
still pinpoint a susceptible group that would need to undergo individual testing
allow for immediate containment measures to prevent a major breakout
allow children to safely return to school and individuals to safely return to work and other activities

Funding generously supported by the

Saliva: an effective alternative

Non-invasive saliva-based specimen increases throughput

Mirimus received a total of 65 saliva samples within 3 days from patients who tested either positive (32) or negative (33) using nasopharyngeal swabs.

97% positivity rate of saliva compared to NP swabs (Samples were not collected on the same day, which may have contributed to a negative saliva sample)
Saliva samples were spiked into Rutgers FDA-approved SDN1000 saliva home collection kit (Spectrum LLC) and sent to Rutgers laboratory for reference testing
100% PPV compared to Rutgers laboratory testing
Yale and other researchers have also thoroughly compared saliva to nasal swabs for COVID-19