ROCKVILLE, MD. – With 12,000 tests successfully performed in just six months, one local biotech company is helping schools’ teachers and administrators safely get back to focusing on the important work of educating their students.
TruGenomix has been supporting George Mason University (GMU) with its Covid-19 surveillance testing program for faculty, students and athletes since the 2020–21 school year began. Of note, TruGenomix is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, and also a black-owned and minority and woman-operated business.
“The safest ‘Back to School’ possible is what we wish for all our kids, so in the fall of 2020, when the opportunity arose for us to use our equipment, expertise, and personnel to support our local community with testing for Covid-19, we didn’t hesitate to jump into action,” said Dr. Tshaka Cunningham, Chief Science Officer of TruGenomix.
“While still keenly focused on the mental health repercussions from Covid-19 and the immense work that lies ahead to bring an earlier, more effective diagnosis for those who develop PTSD amid this pandemic, we’re also proud to be able to help combat this virus by supporting educators and students with timely, inexpensive, and highly accurate access to testing.”
TruGenomix’s reverse transcriptase qPCR is highly sensitive and specific to prevent both false alarms and a false sense of security. In partnership with the GMU research program, the company has participated in research on many Covid-19 testing methods in order to minimize the cost and the discomfort of testing while maintaining the highest possible accuracy.
Because testing results must be rapid to prevent spread, a local testing company is an ideal partner. TruGenomix returns testing results for GMU athlete samples consistently within 12 hours of receiving them. Similarly, If K-12 students were tested at the start of their school day, officials would receive the results in advance of the next school day.
In an ongoing effort to support its community in getting back to normal, TruGenomix has expanded its capabilities within their new Endeavor Lab.
“In hopes of enabling ‘Return to School’ for K-12 students, as well as ‘Return to Church’ and ‘Return to Work’ for everyone, we have developed qPCR testing for surveillance at a fraction of the cost using a pooled saliva technique, which is ideal for these populations,” said Dr. Anne Naclerio, Chief Medical Officer of TruGenomix. “We’re also about to launch a rapid test to determine how well an individual is able to fight off the various strains of the virus [after immunization or exposure]. These are the advances our community needs in this next phase of the pandemic to re-open safely.”