Abstract
In 2019, the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in Wuhan, China, and by early
2020 the first cases were identified in the United States. SARS-CoV-2 infections increased
in the US causing many states to implement stay-at-home orders and additional safety
precautions to mitigate potential outbreaks. As policies changed throughout the pandemic
and restrictions lifted, there was an increase in demand for COVID-19 testing which
was costly, difficult to obtain, or had long turn-around times. Some academic institutions,
including Boston University (BU), created an on-campus COVID-19 screening protocol
as part of a plan for the safe return of students, faculty, and staff to campus with
the option for in-person classes. At BU, we put together an automated high-throughput
clinical testing laboratory with the capacity to run 45,000 individual tests weekly
by Fall of 2020, with a purpose-built clinical testing laboratory, a multiplexed reverse
transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) test, robotic instrumentation, and trained staff. There
were many challenges including supply chain issues for personal protective equipment
and testing materials in addition to equipment that were in high demand. The BU Clinical
Testing Laboratory (CTL) was operational at the start of Fall 2020 and performed over
1 million SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests during the 2020-2021 academic year.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 16, 2022
Accepted:
June 12,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 2,
2022
Received:
January 31,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.
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