On May 20, 2020, Mammoth Biosciences announced a collaboration with GSK Consumer Healthcare to develop an accurate, easy-to-use, fully disposable, rapid and handheld test that consumers and healthcare providers in clinics can use to detect active SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The collaboration was based on Mammoth Biosciences’ CRISPR-based DETECTR platform that identified and signaled the presence of viral RNA strands obtained through a simple nasal swab.

The new test will have the quality and reliability of the proprietary and patented DETECTR platform, which has peer-reviewed validation demonstrating the system’s potential to deliver diagnostic results for SARS-CoV-2 in a simple, consumer-friendly handheld format, while retaining gold standard sensitivity and specificity. The test, which has the potential to deliver point-of-use results in less than 20 minutes, will not require a complex laboratory setting with large equipment and time-consuming multi-step processes. It will be a disposable and easily distributable diagnostic which, subject to regulatory review, will be available first in the clinical setting and ultimately by consumers at home.

Beyond COVID-19, the platform has potential diagnostic applications spanning a variety of infectious diseases. Currently under EUA review, DETECTR recently received peer-reviewed validation demonstrating its diagnostic power, published in Nature Biotechnology.