A Rapid Test for Covid-19 Arrives Via a 20-year-old Technology Already in Many Hospitals
Cepheid’s microfluidics-based rapid testing system proved itself during the 2001 anthrax attacks. Now it steps into the coronavirus battle
spectrum.ieee.org
In late March, the FDA approved the use of Cepheid’s GeneXpert rapid molecular diagnostic machines to test for the new coronavirus. The automated modules—5000 of which are already installed in U.S. health facilities, while 18,000 are in operation in other countries—don’t require a lab facility or special training to operate. What’s more, they generate accurate results in about 45 minutes. The modules use disposable cartridges, pre-filled with the required chemicals that are channeled around test chambers using microfluidics.
While the cartridges had to be adapted to test for COVID-19, the microfluidic system itself dates back to the late 1990s, when Cepheid was cofounded in Silicon Valley by IEEE Fellow Kurt Petersen, a MEMS pioneer and recipient of the 2019 IEEE Medal of Honor. (Cepheid went public in 2000 and Danaher acquired it in 2016.)
The system was just a prototype in September 2001, when letters containing anthrax spores began to arrive at the offices of U.S. senators and journalists. Cepheid won a set of competitions held by the U.S. Postal Service aimed at helping it prevent anthrax from getting into the mail system. To this day, Cepheid systems, attached to mail sorting machines, screen most mail in the U.S.
In late March, the FDA approved the use of Cepheid’s GeneXpert rapid molecular diagnostic machines to test for the new coronavirus. The automated modules—5000 of which are already installed in U.S. health facilities, while 18,000 are in operation in other countries—don’t require a lab facility or special training to operate. What’s more, they generate accurate results in about 45 minutes. The modules use disposable cartridges, pre-filled with the required chemicals that are channeled around test chambers using microfluidics.
While the cartridges had to be adapted to test for COVID-19, the microfluidic system itself dates back to the late 1990s, when Cepheid was cofounded in Silicon Valley by IEEE Fellow Kurt Petersen, a MEMS pioneer and recipient of the 2019 IEEE Medal of Honor. (Cepheid went public in 2000 and Danaher acquired it in 2016.)
The system was just a prototype in September 2001, when letters containing anthrax spores began to arrive at the offices of U.S. senators and journalists. Cepheid won a set of competitions held by the U.S. Postal Service aimed at helping it prevent anthrax from getting into the mail system. To this day, Cepheid systems, attached to mail sorting machines, screen most mail in the U.S.
Since then, the company’s GeneXpert has been adapted to test for flu, strep, norovirus, chlamydia, tuberculosis, MRSA—and now, COVID-19.
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