Researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School have developed a rapid test that can detect COVID-19 variants, and their study demonstrates that the test is 100% sensitive in identifying the correct variant from a clinical sample.

“Our approach is unusually flexible in being able to detect unanticipated mutations,” said David Alland, director of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Public Health Research Institute in an ROI-NJ.com article . “We had recently improved an older version of the assay, so that it could detect the Delta variant, but, when Omicron appeared, we suspected that it would be able to specifically identify this variant as well, and we are happy to find that our testing shows that we were correct.”

A clinical lab team from the Rutgers Genomics Center is seeking rapid approval from the New Jersey Department of Health to use the test on patients to help estalish the correct course of antibody therapy, along with help identify those who are at high risk for developing severe COVID-19.

During the early months of the pandemic, FDA granted an EUA to a molecular test developed by Rutgers Clinical Genomics Laboratory. It was the first COVID-19 lab-developed test that allowed patients to collect their own saliva samples at home.