How a multi-well extraction has sped up COVID-19 testing

The SARS-CoV-2 virus global outbreak generated a need for fast and reliable large-scale testing to diagnose and prevent further COVID-19 transmission. One of the main bottlenecks of the PCR test was the molecular method for viral genetic material extraction. 

As a solution, BioEcho developed a rapid multi-well extraction protocol for viral RNA and DNA that reduces the isolation of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids to a few minutes per 96 samples.

BioEcho’s patent-pending technology is based on a single-step nucleic acid extraction method and differs from the products available on the market, which are established on a silica column that follows the bind-wash-elute principle. The BioEcho technology increases the throughput by reducing the time for viral genetic material extraction procedure to two minutes following sample preparation. Speeding up this step more than 20-fold over other extraction technologies leads to thousands of tests on COVID-19 easily achievable per day.

BioEcho’s product, EchoLUTION for viral RNA and DNA extraction 48-well or 96-well kit, has been validated by multiple diagnostic laboratories for SARS-CoV-2 detection from nasopharyngeal samples. All could significantly increase their test-throughput up to many thousands per day. BioEcho’s viral nucleic acids extraction products already cover almost 12% COVID-19 PCR tests performed in Germany and estimated 50% in Austria. Currently, BioEcho is working towards implementing precise, reproducible, and rapid, automated solutions, as well as developing new technologies for the detection of numerous pathogens.