Be rapid, within 15 minutes or less, and require a minimum number of manipulation steps to arrive at final solution. Possess the ability to isolate and purify 1 copy/µL or less of viral RNA. Be compatible with most clinical sample types (saliva, sputum, blood, swab, urine, as well as anycell-free media). As an immediate test case, demonstrate high specificity for COVID-19 RNA extraction. Demonstrate a method for reagents formulation that is scalable and rapidly adaptable/customizable for different viral threats. Desired outcomes and considerations Essential (mandatory) outcomes Addressing this need in the Phase 1 of the ISC Challenge will immediately fill the capacity gap in government of Canada laboratories and is absolutely required in order to empower larger fabrication capacity in the potential Phase 2. This would allow the integration within existing and potential workflows based around automated sample preparation that is desperately needed in diagnostic settings. The NRC is thus in need of Canadian-based access to magnetic-based reagents for sample preparation and viral RNA extraction. In addition, existing solutions are subject to highly specific protocols that do not possess the ability for on the fly customization and adaptation to existing and potential microfluidic formats. However, the access to compatible reagents for nucleic acid extraction – viral RNA more specifically – continues to pose a serious obstacle. Compared to spin-columns, bead-based technology is also more amenable to microfluidic integration and manipulation. This allows for less manipulation without need of centrifugation steps. Amongst the sample preparation methods highly amenable to automation are ones that based on magnetic bead technology. This is a necessary pre-requisite for downstream diagnostic testing using genetic markers for COVID-19.Ĭurrent supply shortages in reagents are directly caused by Canadian dependence on foreign suppliers that can adversely affect the supply chain. A major cause of the diagnostic shortcomings remains the access to reagents and buffers that allow for rapid viral RNA extraction from patient samples. 
This has caused severe backlogs of tests to be performed, which is especially critical since samples only possess a finite lifetime and testing delay renders results unreliable.
#MAGNET CHALLENGE MANUAL#
Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals and diagnostic lab settings has overwhelmed the current workflow as is mainly using manual preparation and experimentation.
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