University of Oxford ramps up COVID-19 testing capability

10 November 2020

The University of Oxford has joined forces with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, to ramp up the university’s capacity to deliver COVID-19 testing data. The new rapid testing laboratory and jointly developed Thermo Scientific OmnipathTM Combi SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA test detects and quantifies antibodies against the coronavirus and increases the University of Oxford’s testing capacity to up to 50,000 tests per day.

Dr. Richard Cornall, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Head of the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford said: “The collaboration is one of a number of projects that we’ve been co-developing with Thermo Fisher and is particularly important because it secures manufacturing and testing capacity that is important for the UK in the next phase of resolving the pandemic.”

Oxford researchers are already using the new fully automated testing platform to provide weekly UK wide data for the Office of National Statistics as part of the national COVID-19 Infection Survey. In addition, the equipment further enhances Oxford’s capacity to quantify the response to vaccines accurately and on a large scale as part of our ongoing clinical trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine to assess vaccine performance.

Dr. Sarah Walker, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and Chief Investigator of the National COVID-19 infection survey said: “Using this test within the COVID-19 Infection Survey will allow us to answer vital questions about the role of previous infection, and varying levels of antibody response to previous infection, in protecting people from getting infected again in the future, as we follow individuals over the course of a year, repeatedly testing them for both virus and antibodies.”

The Thermo Scientific OmnipathTM Combi SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA is designed to run on an open instrument platform (subject to the necessary regulatory approvals and clearances), reporting a quantitative anti-Spike ELISA, which will be a measure of IgG antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein of the novel coronavirus to identify previous infection. The determination of antibody status aids in the diagnosis and surveillance of the disease during the acute and recovery stages of infection.

Mark Stevenson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Thermo Fisher Scientific, said: “Our ongoing partnership with Oxford University is key to enabling rapid scaling of novel diagnostics as we expand our COVID-19 response. Combining the academic research capabilities of world recognised scientists at Oxford University with our UK based development and manufacturing facility in Dartford, Kent has expanded our serology portfolio to assist in the epidemiology of COVID-19. Having quantitative data on neutralizing antibodies will enable better understanding of the immune response following exposure to the COVID-19 virus and support monitoring of the effectiveness of vaccines as they become available.”

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About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com

About the University of Oxford
Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the fifth year running, and at the heart of this success is our ground-breaking research and innovation. Oxford is world-famous for research excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions. Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the U.K. and is ranked first in the U.K. for university spin-outs, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. www.ox.ac.uk