August 10, 2020

CRISPR-Based and RT-QPCR Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Asymptomatic Individuals Uncovers a Shift in Viral Prevalence among a University Population

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

• [pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Testing of oropharyngeal self-collected samples for SARS-CoV-2 among asymptomatic students and others associated with the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) found that none of 732 samples from the first round of testing (May 28 to June 11) were positive and that there were 9 positives out of 1,076 tests in the second round (June 23 to July 2). 
• The authors report near-perfect concordance in results obtained by RT-qPCR and CREST, a CRISPR-based method recently developed at UCSB. 

Rauch et al. (Aug 7, 2020). CRISPR-Based and RT-QPCR Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Asymptomatic Individuals Uncovers a Shift in Viral Prevalence among a University Population. Pre-print downloaded Aug 10 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.06.20169771