It’s time to get off of our couches and back into the real world!
It has been hypothesized that COVID-19 has spread widely through our community since early 2020, and that most of those infected either have had minor or no symptoms, or these were mistaken for another pathology (like flu). Antibody tests can indicate whether a person is likely immune to COVID-19 and can therefore re-enter public life without infecting themselves or spreading the infection to others.
Over the past several weeks, a number of Columbia investigators have collaborated in the development of a new, ELISA-based serology assay for COVID-19. This has been validated and credentialled for clinical use through the Department of Pathology Clinical Diagnostics group. The scale-up of this assay is a critical need both for the Columbia community and also for all of New York City.
Highly-skilled CRAC volunteers form a scientific assembly line to be able to process hundreds of samples a day. If you are an experienced molecular biologist and want to save the world one ELISA-based serology assay at a time, please apply.
Status: Our 14 on-site volunteers have completed all necessary training and started their first week of serological testing on Monday, April 20th.
Check out this podcast on serological testing by Eldad Hod at Shrink Speak by Jeff Lieberman.
Here is official NY state information on serological antibody information (also available in Spanish).
Team
Manager: Dr. Natalie Steinemann
Volunteers: Dr. Panos Oikonomou, Dr. Christopher Ricupero, Dr. Rebecca Delventhal, Dr. Hui Wang, Dr. John Christin, Dr. Florence Borot, Dr. Irina Sagalovskiy, Dr. Neda Masoudi, Dr. Steve Sastra, Dr. Steven Cook, Dr. Jaya Sarin Pradhan, Dr. Tian Li, Dr. Barbara Corneo, Dr. Danielle Tufts, Dr. Ilenia Pellicciotta
Faculty contact: Dr. Eldad Hod
Project Summary
This project staffed the clinical serology lab of Dr. Eldad Hod in the month after they deployed their serology test. This allowed the serology service to rapidly scale up while the lab purchased and installed additional robotic clinical serology instruments. Our volunteers processed around 1,100 samples a week, and cumulatively processed over 3,600. For more info: https://twitter.com/Columbia_CRAC/status/1259865800967626752
Media coverage:
https://columbiacovid.weebly.com/blog/post-4-answering-the-call-crac-serology-testing-volunteers-join-the-fight-against-covid-19
It has been hypothesized that COVID-19 has spread widely through our community since early 2020, and that most of those infected either have had minor or no symptoms, or these were mistaken for another pathology (like flu). Antibody tests can indicate whether a person is likely immune to COVID-19 and can therefore re-enter public life without infecting themselves or spreading the infection to others.
Over the past several weeks, a number of Columbia investigators have collaborated in the development of a new, ELISA-based serology assay for COVID-19. This has been validated and credentialled for clinical use through the Department of Pathology Clinical Diagnostics group. The scale-up of this assay is a critical need both for the Columbia community and also for all of New York City.
Highly-skilled CRAC volunteers form a scientific assembly line to be able to process hundreds of samples a day. If you are an experienced molecular biologist and want to save the world one ELISA-based serology assay at a time, please apply.
Status: Our 14 on-site volunteers have completed all necessary training and started their first week of serological testing on Monday, April 20th.
Check out this podcast on serological testing by Eldad Hod at Shrink Speak by Jeff Lieberman.
Here is official NY state information on serological antibody information (also available in Spanish).
Team
Manager: Dr. Natalie Steinemann
Volunteers: Dr. Panos Oikonomou, Dr. Christopher Ricupero, Dr. Rebecca Delventhal, Dr. Hui Wang, Dr. John Christin, Dr. Florence Borot, Dr. Irina Sagalovskiy, Dr. Neda Masoudi, Dr. Steve Sastra, Dr. Steven Cook, Dr. Jaya Sarin Pradhan, Dr. Tian Li, Dr. Barbara Corneo, Dr. Danielle Tufts, Dr. Ilenia Pellicciotta
Faculty contact: Dr. Eldad Hod
Project Summary
This project staffed the clinical serology lab of Dr. Eldad Hod in the month after they deployed their serology test. This allowed the serology service to rapidly scale up while the lab purchased and installed additional robotic clinical serology instruments. Our volunteers processed around 1,100 samples a week, and cumulatively processed over 3,600. For more info: https://twitter.com/Columbia_CRAC/status/1259865800967626752
Media coverage:
https://columbiacovid.weebly.com/blog/post-4-answering-the-call-crac-serology-testing-volunteers-join-the-fight-against-covid-19