By Tom Cech

I鈥檝e been immersed in the new book by Walter Isaacson, modestly titled 鈥淭he Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race.鈥� Multiple pages describe Jennifer鈥檚 leadership in launching COVID-19 testing on the Berkeley campus. There鈥檚 no question that Jennifer鈥檚 scientific acumen, compassion, team-building prowess and rock-star influence in the Bay Area science community made a huge difference in establishing high-throughput testing at UC-Berkeley.

Yet, reading that section of the book, I was struck by Isaacson鈥檚 lost opportunity. Faculty, postdocs and students 鈥渇illing the void鈥� and establishing COVID-19 testing was not unique to Berkeley. It happened at universities around the country.  And, we should be proud to note, it happened at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

When COVID-19 hit and our campus moved to remote instruction and research in March 2020, we all became painfully aware of the dearth of testing for the virus. Testing was needed for public health reasons 鈥� to allow containment of outbreaks, which could easily spread from the 欧美口爆视频 campus to the City of Boulder. The local hospitals were overwhelmed, requiring 3 days or sometimes a week to return results, and the federal government and the State of 欧美口爆视频 were providing little leadership.

The 鈥淒o it yourself鈥� solution for 欧美口爆视频 Boulder was catalyzed by Prof. Sara Sawyer and her lab. Their research already involved monitoring flu virus in saliva, and they immediately saw that saliva could just as easily be tested for SARS-CoV-2. Saliva is relevant because it鈥檚 the way that COVID is transmitted (little droplets dispersed when you sneeze, cough, yell or sing), and it鈥檚 quicker, cheaper and less painful to collect than a nasal swab specimen. Saliva testing, however, was not FDA approved, so the tests organized by Berkeley, 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, and most other universities are called surveillance tests rather than diagnostic tests. If your saliva test comes out positive, you鈥檙e urged to get an FDA-approved diagnostic test.

BioFrontiers Director Roy Parker and his research group devised a reliable and sensitive Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay for SARS-CoV-2 from saliva, and Prof. Leslie Leinwand and Roy then went to the 欧美口爆视频 administration with a plan to scale up to a University-wide level. The 欧美口爆视频 administration cut through the normal red tape to order testing supplies and make funds available. Although Leslie and Roy understood the science of testing, they had no experience in the practical issues of setting up space and scheduling that could handle thousands of students, staff and faculty. Here Associate Vice Chancellor Jennifer Barrett McDuffie came to the rescue. Dr. Kristen Bjorkman provided leadership for collecting saliva samples at six sites, testing them in the BioFrontiers Institute, and reporting them quickly and accurately.

The testing lab became operational in August 2020, in time for the students arriving for the Fall Semester. This testing was essential for the safety of 欧美口爆视频 and our city 鈥� when cases inevitably arose, they were quickly contained, and effective contact tracing alerted those who might have been exposed. Cases did spike in September (the unfortunate Party on the Hill), but the spike was short lived. By now, Kristen and her crew have analyzed 185,000 individual saliva samples (185 L of saliva!), which includes 5,000 samples from family and household members.

A special feature of the 欧美口爆视频 Boulder program was the monitoring of effluent (notice my polite choice of words!) from 欧美口爆视频鈥檚 dorms and correlating this with testing of individual dorm residents. Led by Prof. Cresten Mansfeldt, students tapped into the sewage lines of dormitories and tested for viral RNA. Remarkably, a single infected resident could be detected in a dorm鈥檚 effluent.

Campuses across the country each devised their own testing program, aided by much cross-institution sharing of ideas, protocols and data. Yes, it takes 鈥渞ocket science鈥� to understand how to perform accurate tests with viral RNA. But fortunately, major universities have rocket scientists who are up to the challenge.

Many who worked so tirelessly to create virus testing for 欧美口爆视频 Boulder did the extra work as an overload, unpaid, with no incentive other than 鈥渋t鈥檚 the right thing to do.鈥� They did the extra work at the expense of their own research, their progress towards their degree, their next grant application or publication. Yet they gained something 鈥� a tremendous sense of accomplishment, of teamwork, of camaraderie. They came to know faculty, students and staff from far ends of campus, who they hadn鈥檛 known existed, and they found them to be just as bright and energetic and committed as they were. The sharing, collaborative, generous spirit gave them confidence that, while the virus might slow us down, it would not put us down.

Thomas R. Cech, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology Ph.D. Program at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder. He is also 欧美口爆视频鈥檚 first Nobel Prize laureate (1989).

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The University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder will be one of four national centers designed to advance the application of cryoelectron tomography (cryoET), which helps visualize in 3-D the fine-structure of intact cells and tissues, the National Institutes of Health announced (NIH) today.

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欧美口爆视频 Boulder research attracted a record $631 million in funding in fiscal year 2019 for groundbreaking studies that investigate a changing environment, explore new opportunities in space, mitigate the effects of natural hazards, advance biomedical research and seek cleaner, more sustainable energy solutions.

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