QUICK RESULTS: One of the antibodies has shown ‘perfect’ efficiency in identifying the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, an Academia Sinica researcher said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 09, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Academia Sinica yesterday said that it has synthesized monoclonal antibodies that can identify the protein of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which it said is an important step toward producing a rapid screening reagent for the virus.

The potential reagent, if successfully mass produced, would shorten the testing time for COVID-19 from about four hours to 15 to 20 minutes, significantly improving screening efficiency, the nation’s top academic research institution said in a statement on Facebook.

Yang An-suei (楊安綏), an Academia Sinica research fellow at the Genomics Research Center who headed the team that synthesized the antibodies, said that for rapid screening to work, the reagent should accurately identify the new coronavirus.    [FULL  STORY]