A Kiwi is behind a new coronavirus testing method in the US that’s been labelled a game-changer.
Scientists at the prestigious Yale University have developed a cheap and easy saliva test that’s just been given emergency government clearance to be rolled out immediately US-wide.
As lawmakers butt heads over how to tackle the pandemic in America, the teams at Yale put their heads together to create a potentially revolutionary saliva test, headed by Aucklander Anne Wyllie.
“It’s been an incredible experience,” she told 1NEWS.
“So much of the time you're not even realising what you're doing because you're just doing what you need to do, but every now and then the reality of the situation dawns on you.”
The work has been given rare emergency approval by the American Food and Drug Administration, meaning it can now be rolled out nationwide.
It’s a simple test where you spit into a tube. But what makes this test different from others is the team has managed to bypass the most expensive and time consuming part of extracting genetic material from RNA.
That means a test could cost as little as $15 and results can be produced in just a few hours.
“At the moment it's been so expensive which makes it so inaccessible for so many people that schools just simply can’t even consider having routine testing,” Ms Wyllie says.
They say the test is 94 per cent accurate and they know it works because they recruited some NBA players as test subjects.
"The NBA noticed our work, and what we were doing and obviously they were consdiering options on how to get their league back up and running so they could finish the season,” Ms Wyllie said.
“So they've been sending us samples and we've been testing a lot with NBA saliva.”
Work is now underway to make the test available for Kiwis.
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