Date: Feb.16, 2020
Source: Department of Scientific and Technological research

Guangzhou HAILITE Biological Technology Co., Ltd., which has a close collaboration with JNU and is an innovation practice base for postdoctoral students in biology, announced on Feb. 14 that it had developed qualitative and quantitative detection kits for novel coronavirus. Prof. Wang Tong of JNU's College of Life Science and Technology, the university's science and technology correspondent with HAILITE, has made important contributions to the development and performance evaluation of the testing kits by taking advantage of JNU's in-depth industry-university-research cooperation mechanism.
 

（nucleic acid detection kits for novel coronavirus (Covid-19)）
 

（Professor Wang Tong and Zhu Tuofu being interviewed）

At present, nucleic acid detection kits for novel coronavirus (Covid-19) based on JNU's cooperation with HAILITE have begun testing in disease control departments and hospitals. The testing showed that the kits had been successfully tested on 27 sample groups of patients with confirmed novel coronavirus infection. Among 50 suspected samples of pharyngeal swabs or nasopharyngeal swab samples from confirmed cases, nucleic acid precision kits developed by HAILITE could detect 21 cases, including the 14 detectable by kits currently on the market. With 21 cases diagnosed in the end, the detection rate increased by 33.3%. These efforts indicated that false-negative or missing test issues are expected to be significantly improved by increasing the sensitivity of detection kits with the use of specificity. In addition, the kits could provide a new method for monitoring the response evaluation of patients with novel coronavirus.

At the same time, the Dongguan Institute of Micro-Precision Detection, jointly incubated by JNU and HAILITE in JNU'sDongguan Institute, obtained a third-party license in January 2020. The institute is now capable of testing 300 suspected cases a day. The institute also hopes to assume some responsibility and take measures to fight the epidemic by screening suspected patients.