Science funding mechanisms are too slow in normal times and may be much too slow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast Grants are an effort to correct this.
If you are a scientist at an academic institution currently working on a COVID-19 related project and in need of funding, we invite you to apply for a Fast Grant. Fast Grants are $10k to $500k and decisions are made in under 14 days. If we approve the grant, you'll receive payment as quickly as your university can receive it.
Due to receipt of a very large number of qualified submissions, Fast Grant applications are currently paused. If Fast Grants secures additional funding, we will resume issuing new grants. Sign up if you’d like to be notifed if we reopen applications:
The grants are currently supported by: Arnold Ventures, The Audacious Project, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, John Collison, Patrick Collison, Crankstart, Jack Dorsey, Kim and Scott Farquhar, Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Fiona McKean and Tobias Lütke, Yuri and Julia Milner, Elon Musk, Chris and Crystal Sacca, Schmidt Futures, and others. AWS has contributed compute credits.
Fast Grants funders have committed over $40M to funding Fast Grant awardees. If you are an interested funder, please reach out: fund@fastgrants.org.
You must be:
Researchers outside the US are eligible for funding.
For our first call, which launched on April 7, we committed to making decisions within 48 hours. We made more than 130 grants on this clock cycle. Several months later, many of the obvious projects are now underway, and the science has advanced to the point that deeper analysis of submissions will often prove valuable. For our second call, which launched on July 12, we will always respond to submissions within 14 days (which remains faster than almost all other funding mechanisms), and we retain the flexibility to make immediate approvals where necessary.
Most existing funding bodies focus on supporting longer-term work. Given COVID-19’s human costs, speed is of paramount importance.
A panel of biomedical scientists will make funding recommendations to Emergent Ventures.
We require that a Fast Grant be used solely to expedite COVID-19-related science. Beyond that, the grant recipient has complete discretion over how it is spent.
We’ll prefer projects that are cheap (so that our fund dollars go further) and that will yield results quickly (during COVID-19, days matter).
This is at the discretion of the applicant.
The second call for Fast Grants submissions opened at 22:00 Pacific Time on Sunday, July 12, 2020. Applicants will receive funding decisions within 14 days of their submission.
Apart from the open science publication requirement above, there are no IP restrictions associated with Fast Grants.
Fast Grants is a part of Emergent Ventures, a project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Yes, the Mercatus Center, of which Fast Grants/Emergent Ventures is a part, is a 501c(3) organization.
This shall be at the recipient's discretion. We will list those who agree to be named. We will also provide regular updates on the total dollars that have been allocated.
During World War II, the NDRC accomplished a lot of research very quickly. In his memoir, Vannevar Bush recounts: “Within a week NDRC could review the project. The next day the director could authorize, the business office could send out a letter of intent, and the actual work could start.” Fast Grants are an effort to unlock progress at a cadence similar to that which served us well then.
The list below is updated regularly with additional recipients. As of August 15th, 176 awards have been made. Not all recipients are currently listed.
For continuing to share critical reagents with researchers at minimal cost during the Covid-19 pandemic.
For modeling age-dependent susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in 3D human lung organoids.
To use a novel viral membrane inhibitor to produce a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
For the development of a Covid-19 vaccine specificially targeted to the receptor-binding domain of the viral S protein using expertise gained during successful development of anti-malaria and anti-chikungunya vaccines.
For the collaborative effort with Accel Diagnostics to develop a point of care serological test for rapid quantification of antibody titer to monitor disease progression and strength of immune response.
For retrospective analyses designed to assess the benefit of off-label drug use, in order to help prioritize and guide subsequent randomized clinical trials.
For the development of a single-cycle adenovirus vaccine and viral decoy against SARS-CoV-2.
For a collaborative effort with the Lingwood and Schmidt labs combining vaccine immunology and nanotechnology expertise to rapidly test and characterize COVID-19 vaccine candidates in high-throughput.
To create multiple vaccines for COVID-19 using novel strategies for delivering coronavirus proteins directly to the critical cells required to generate an effective immune response.
For a collaboration of Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, Dr. Catherine Blish and Dr. Marie Hollenhorst to identify minimally invasive predictive biomarkers for Covid-19 disease progression to improve scarce resource allocation.
For the development of an asymptomatic multi-epitope COVID-19 vaccine.
To determine best practices for N95 mask decontamination that will sufficiently inactivate virus and allow mask reuse in a clinical setting
To study the immune basis of COVID-19 related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDs) via longitudinal study of patients undergoing placebo and convalescent plasma treatment in order to inform evidence-based repurposing of targeted immunotherapies to improve outcomes for critically-ill patients affected by COVID-19.
For electron tomography imaging of SARS-CoV-2 virions trapped in the act of fusion by novel fusion inhibitors
To probe the human B cell repertoire for SARS-CoV-2-protective B cells from pre-immune individuals in order to guide vaccine and monoclonal antibody design against COVID-19.
To accelerate the CONNECT study (COVID-19 and diabetes: Clinical Outcomes and Navigated NEtwork Care Today) to define the relationship between diabetes and adverse COVID-19 outcomes and improve care for individuals with diabetes.
To develop novel COVID-19 therapeutics that target coronavirus ion channels in collaboration with the Bautista and Adesnik labs.
To support a randomized, controlled clinical trial testing whether continuation, or discontinuation of two common types of blood pressure medication leads to better outcomes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
To investigate cross-reactive, cross-neutralizing, and antibody-dependent enhancing (ADE) antibodies of circulating endemic coronaviruses.
To accelerate the characterization of antibodies from COVID19 patients that are associated with rapid recovery compared to severe disease; and to identify potent monoclonal antibodies capable of inhibiting the virus, which will be prioritized for therapeutic development
To investigate the impact of FDA-approved calcium-modulating drugs on lessening COVID infection, based on their work identifying a role for calcium ions in virus entry.
For high-throughput screening of antibody responses in COVID-19 patients for therapeutic discovery and to accelerate vaccine design.
Understanding the immune correlates of protection in infected individuals with a mild form of COVID-19 versus those with the severe form of the disease is essential for therapeutic interventions or vaccine design.
For the ACT program design using innovative and adaptive methodology to find a safe, effective treatment to slow the progression of COVID-19 across 80 sites in 8 countries over 6 months.
For creating a national database of COVID+ patient data and studying it to gain a better understanding of disease trajectory, improved hospital resource allocation and the acceleration of clinical trials.
To identify and test therapeutic strategies to safely attenuate the damaging hyperinflammatory response caused by SARS-CoV-2, including repurposing of approved drugs.
For the ‘I-SPY for COVID-19’ Platform Trial to Reduce Mortality and Ventilator requirements for critically ill patient in collaboration with Dr. Carolyn Calfee and Dr. Kathleen Liu.
To investigate the pathogenesis of COVID-19 in the development of a relevant animal model in order to advance our understanding of the disease process and for safe and efficacious therapeutic and vaccine development.
For a comparative study to validate saliva as a test for SARS-CoV-2, as an alternative to nasopharyngeal swab testing and its associated problems, including depletion of swabs and personal protective equipment, and risk of nosocomial infection from close proximity of health care worker and patient being tested
For using their combined expertise in virology and in multisubunit protein production to engineer virus-like particles (VLPs), which will allow for rapid testing of the neutralization capacity of recovered patient sera (in collaboration with the Blish lab) or designed antibodies targeting the S protein (in collaboration with the Wells lab).
For the discovery of CoV-2 particle entry in absence of ACE2 and genome-wide gain-of-function screening to identify new secondary receptors/co-receptors/auxiliary proteins that facilitate viral entry/fusion.
To analyze the role of phase separation in packaging of the viral genome and as a target for therapeutic small molecules.
To determine the potential of GSK-3 inhibitors to diminish the cytokine storm associated with COVID-19.
To repurpose an FDA-approved oral drug to inhibit SARS-CoV-2.
To support the Antithrombotic Therapy to Ameliorate Complications of COVID-19 (ATTACC) trial. This international, multicenter, adaptive, open-label randomized clinical trial will examine the impact of therapeutic anticoagulation in comparison to standard venous thromboprophylaxis on the risk of intubation and death in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
For using a 3D human lung organoid model that is infected with SARS-CoV-2 to screen for new therapies to treat COVID19 and reduce lung injury.
To identify combination antiviral and immune modulatory therapies that improve the outcome of patients with COVID-19 induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
For developing new testing strategies and utilizing virus genomic sequencing to support data-driven decision making.
To correlate host transcriptome profile from clinical nasal swabs from positive and negative COVID-19 cases with clinical outcomes
For the TURQUOISE Ottawa COVID-19 study profiling immune responses of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), with a focus on the potential immunomodulatory function of mesenchymal stem cells.
To perform a randomized, representative, community-based, longitudinal study of short and long-term spread, asymptomatic infection rates, disease risk modifying factors and effects of non-pharmacological interventions for COVID-19 in the Bay Area.
To characterize the immunologic and inflammatory state and dynamics of patients with COVID-19 using routine clinical laboratory data and develop methods to provide risk stratification and to generate mechanistic hypotheses regarding disease progression.
To elucidate which antibody characteristics in convalescent plasma lead to COVID-19 patient symptom improvement and recovery.
For the discovery of diagnostic and actionable biomarkers of COVID-19.
To elucidate the single cell transcriptional profiles of infected tissues from COVID-19 patients.
To investigate convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 in a rhesus model.
For modulating the hyperinflammatory myeloid cell response to COVID-19 infection.
For elucidating a newly discovered mechanism by which the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to its receptor(s) on trachea and nasal epithelium and defining a new drug target to block viral uptake and spread.
To rapidly research and develop nucleotide analogues that inhibit SARS-CoV-2 polymerase as therapeutics for COVID-19.
To perform a clinical trial assessing the efficacy of sobetirome in reducing the requirements for mechanical ventilation and mortality of moderate to severe hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
For a three-month multi-site randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study to assess safety and efficacy of hydroxy-chloroquine (HCQ) Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in the prevention of COVID-19 infections in high-risk Health Care Workers.
Development of Syrian Hamsters as a Covid-19 model to test the Protective Efficacy of a Whole-Inactivated Vaccine.
To discover and characterize novel D-peptide viral entry inhibitors as drug candidates to prevent and treat COVID-19.
For identifying SARS-CoV-2-Human Protein-Protein Interactions and evaluating them as potential therapeutic targets.
To generate a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 using a novel polymer for mRNA protection.
For developing a live-cell test for the activity of a key protein from SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, and testing of a set of existing drugs for ability to disrupt this protein’s function.
To explore the pathogenic role of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in COVID-19 by testing a strategy to dismantle NETs using a novel therapeutic to ameliorate acute lung injury.
To elucidate the pathogenesis by SARS-CoV-2 using reverse genetics in yeast.
For the COVID-19 Study of Children and Families, a longitudinal observational study to evaluate the key epidemiological characteristics and spectrum of disease severity of COVID-19 among parents and children.
To identify novel risk factors that determine which COVID-19 patients are at highest risk (e.g., those needing ICU care or to be on a ventilator) or who develop cardiac injury, with a particular focus on baseline vascular abnormalities.
For comparison of pre-clinical animal models for vaccine and therapeutic development and the basic immunology and virulence determinants underlying host-pathogen interactions.
To develop a live intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to generate both humoral (especially respiratory mucosal) and cellular acquired immune responses against SARS-CoV-2, based on a recombinant version of an attenuated nonhuman poxvirus called myxoma virus that has been engineered to co-express the four SARS-CoV-2 proteins (S, N, M and E) needed to produce secreted non-infectious virus-like particles that antigenically mimic the complete SARS CoV-2 virus.
To test whether exististing antivirals can be used to control outbreaks of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
For high-throughput screening of repurposed FDA-approved drugs for their efficacy to prevent SARS-CoV2 entry by modifying endosomal pH and testing in preclinical hamster and ferret models of Covid-19 in collaboration with the Kozak and Falzarano labs.
To comprehensively characterize the immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 and identify the factors that control the severity of COVID-19 disease based on a comprehensive and longitudinal COVID-19 BioBank of Mount Sinai’s very large COVID-19 patient population.
To summarize rapidly emerging clinical research evidence and generate comparative efficacy and safety profiles for candidate interventions.
To develop recombinant secretory immunoglobulin A antibodies to the SARS CoV-2 virus and use them to provide passive protection against infection.
To test compounds known to activate the oxidative stress response pathways for their potential as inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2.
To develop anti-viral COVID-19 therapeutics based on direct targeting of the viral RNA genome using LNA anti-sense oligonucleotides.
To support a randomized clinical trial to investigate whether vaccination with BCG is able to decrease the incidence and severity of COVID-19 infection in elderly individuals.
For a collaborative effort of the Nomura, Murthy, Cate, Schaletzky, and Stanley labs to develop small molecule Covid-19 antivirals drugs.
To analyze genetic variation of critical immune system molecules in the differential response to SARS-COV-2 infection. These are the highly polymorphic HLA genes that are central to innate and adaptive immunity, and KIR genes, whose diversity modulates natural killer cell functions. We will examine how this diversity correlates with disease severity and with specific antibody production.
To accelerate COVID-19 research by improving transparency of related registrations, data, materials, and preprints on the Open Science Framework (OSF.io) for discovery and consumption by researchers and other services.
For developing the COVID Collaboration Platform to bring disparate research teams working on the same clinical research questions together to share protocols, data, and evidence. Outside of a few centrally organized trials, most COVID-19 randomized clinical trials are small and/or redundant—and it's only by aggregating evidence across these trials that we will learn how to best treat COVID-19.
For a joint Gladstone/Berkeley project by the labs of Melanie Ott (Gladstone Institutes) Dan Fletcher (UC-Berkeley) and Jennifer Doudna (UC-Berkeley/Gladstone Institutes) to develop a CRISPR-based at-home and point of care COVID-19 diagnostic device that leverages existing cell phone technology and allows for wide-scale data gathering and contact tracing.
To cost-effectively modify N95 grade (and non-N95 grade) mask surfaces from hydrophilic (to which respiratory aerosols/droplets adhere) to hydrophobic (repelling respiratory aerosols/droplets), to increase their lifespan.
To identify the most potent compound from a class of rocaglates for activity against SARS-CoV-2. Our previous work has shown that these compounds are effective against the non-pathogenic coronavirus 229E strain.
To develop safe and effective peptides for prophylactic treatment and rapid early therapeutic intervention against COVID-19 infection.
For studying how immunity, or protection from subsequent Covid-19 disease, forms in individuals and how it can be used to develop antibody-based therapeutics.
For a phase 1 clinical trial to test the efficacy of a recombinant protein-based Sars-CoV vaccine with Advax-SM adjuvant, based on expertise gained during SARS-CoV vaccine development.
To reduce asymptomatic spread by developing a weable sensor and algorithm that alerts the wearer when signals of a likely early infection are present prior to normal symptom onset.
To further develop a clinically validated COVID diagnostic point-of-care test.
To pursue targeted delivery of Covid-19 coronavirus antigens to antigen presenting cells in the form of nanobody-antigen adducts in the presence of approved adjuvants to elicit protective B- and T-cell (inluding CD8) responses as a possible vaccine strategy.
For the longitudinal study of COVID-19 progression in non-human primate models to identify potential disease-modifying pathways.
To use two cutting-edge screening technologies to identify new drug targets for the treatment of COVID-19, and the identification of FDA-approved drugs with activity against SARS-CoV-2.
To develop human ACE2 transgenic mice in strains that express all classes of human FcγRs to study the mechanisms of antibody-mediated protection against Covid-19 infection.
To develop SARS-CoV-2 replicons that can be used for high throughput screens at BSL2 containment, and to use genetic knockdown and knockout technology to identify host factors required by SARS-CoV-2 that can be targeted to treat COVID-19.
To rapidly identify a human monoclonal antibody that potently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 and that is suitable for clinical development for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 based on convalescent serum screening.
To scale up protein production in order to compare and advance antibody therapeutics against COVID-19 around the world through our international consortium.
To identify the cellular and molecular basis for durable immunity to SARS-CoV-2, with a focus on the identification of T cell receptor and antibody sequences that are shared among virus controllers and the identification of immune dysfunction in COVID-19 that could be treated with existing FDA-approved drugs.
For evaluating the use of cardiac CT angiography (CCTA) to study myocardial injury in COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Julia Schaletzky, Prof. Sarah Stanley and their team at the UCB Drug Discovery center work on a repurposing approach, discovering if compounds with existing safety data in humans can be used to combat COVID-19 infection.
The Seley-Radtke group has developed a series of flexible nucleoside analogues ("fleximers") that have exhibited potent activity against epidemic (i.e. SARS and MERS), and endemic (i.e., NL63) human coronaviruses (CoVs). The Fast Grant will help advance our synthetic efforts as well as to fastrack our preclinical animal studies against SARS-CoV-2 and CoVID-19.
To transcriptionally and serologically profile blood from COVID-19 patients to determine the molecular signatures associated with a spectrum of disease severities. These studies will expand our knowledge of COVID-19 pathogenesis and biomarkers of disease.
For the discovery of human antibodies blocking ACE2 binding by the viral S protein through screening of libraries of billions of human antibodies and their further validation to move them towards clinical trials as an antiviral drug to fight COVID-19 directly.
For discerning immune cell signaling states associated with disease escalation in COVID-19 based on prospective patient samples in order to identify therapeutic targets to modulate inflammation in COVID-19 patients.
For testing of repurposed antiviral compounds in an in-vivo disease model.
To create a COVID-19 vaccine through a novel immunotherapeutic platform.
For the development of non-PCR point-of-care tests for COVID-19 infection, based on engineered peroxidase reporters.
To characterize monoclonal antibodies to Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 from convalescent human donors for their binding, neutralization and structural properties.
To develop novel COVID-19 therapeutics that target SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein in collaboration with the Baker lab.
To accelerate structure based drug discovery (including biologics) by bringing atomic details to host-viral complexes through the QCRG Structural Biology Consortium.
Clinical trials to determine whether prazosin, a drug already widely used for common medical conditions, can prevent cytokine storms and severe disease in COVID-19 patients when given early after infection.
To investigate ACE-I, ARB and type 5 PDE-I drugs in the context of ARDS and microvascular dysfunction in Covid-19 patients.
To generate a single cell resolution spatial atlas of SARS-CoV-2 infection across multiple tissues in patients with severe COVID-19.
Wang and her group are studying molecules that correlate with immunity against COVID-19. Their studies focus on defining a protective antibody response, and they will investigate whether antibodies have a role in determining the severity of COVID-19. The overarching goal of this work is to guide the development of vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2.
To investigate the the diversity and longevity of T cell immunity to SARS-COV2 through longitudinal study of Covid-19 patients.
For the discovery of drugs that inhibit macrophage activation for use in severe cases of COVID-19. These drugs may suppress cytokine storm, hyperinflammation, and pulmonary infiltration to prevent respiratory failure.
To use state-of-the-art technologies including organoid culture and single-cell sequencing to identify the cell types infected by SARS-CoV2 and to reveal how the virus disturbs these cells to cause disease.
For developing an isothermal point of care diagnostic test to detect Sars-CoV2.
To investigate the relationship between systemic exposure to hydroxychloroquine and therapeutic efficacy as well as side effects in COVID-19 patients.
For the global COVID Human Genetic Effort, to search for monogenic etiologies for rare individuals naturally resistant to SARS-CoV-2 infections, as well as young and previously healthy individuals who suffered from life-threatening COVID-19.
Abstract
Coronaviruses are prone to emergence into new host species most recently evidenced by SARSCoV-2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small animal models that recapitulate SARS-CoV-2 disease are desperately needed to rapidly evaluate medical countermeasures (MCMs). SARS-CoV-2 cannot infect wildtype laboratory mice due to inefficient interactions between the viral spike (S) protein and the murine ortholog of the human receptor, ACE2. We used reverse genetics to remodel the S and mACE2 binding interface resulting in a recombinant virus (SARS-CoV-2 MA) that could utilize mACE2 for entry. SARS-CoV-2 MA replicated in both the upper and lower airways of both young adult and aged BALB/c mice. Importantly, disease was more severe in aged mice, and showed more clinically relevant phenotypes than those seen in hACE2 transgenic mice. We then demonstrated the utility of this model through vaccine challenge studies in immune competent mice with native expression of mACE2. Lastly, we show that clinical candidate interferon (IFN) lambda-1a can potently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in primary human airway epithelial cells in vitro, and both prophylactic and therapeutic administration diminished replication in mice. Our mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 model demonstrates age-related disease pathogenesis and supports the clinical use of IFN lambda-1a treatment in human COVID-19 infections
Abstract
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratory disease, has infected over 2.3 million people, killed over 160,000, and caused worldwide social and economic disruption1,2. There are currently no antiviral drugs with proven clinical efficacy, nor are there vaccines for its prevention, and these efforts are hampered by limited knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To address this, we cloned, tagged and expressed 26 of the 29 SARS-CoV-2 proteins in human cells and identified the human proteins physically associated with each using affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS), identifying 332 high-confidence SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Among these, we identify 66 druggable human proteins or host factors targeted by 69 compounds (29 FDA-approved drugs, 12 drugs in clinical trials, and 28 preclinical compounds). Screening a subset of these in multiple viral assays identified two sets of pharmacological agents that displayed antiviral activity: inhibitors of mRNA translation and predicted regulators of the Sigma1 and Sigma2 receptors. Further studies of these host factor targeting agents, including their combination with drugs that directly target viral enzymes, could lead to a therapeutic regimen to treat COVID-19.
Abstract
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratory disease, has infected over 2.3 million people, killed over 160,000, and caused worldwide social and economic disruption1,2. There are currently no antiviral drugs with proven clinical efficacy, nor are there vaccines for its prevention, and these efforts are hampered by limited knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To address this, we cloned, tagged and expressed 26 of the 29 SARS-CoV-2 proteins in human cells and identified the human proteins physically associated with each using affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS), identifying 332 high-confidence SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Among these, we identify 66 druggable human proteins or host factors targeted by 69 compounds (29 FDA-approved drugs, 12 drugs in clinical trials, and 28 preclinical compounds). Screening a subset of these in multiple viral assays identified two sets of pharmacological agents that displayed antiviral activity: inhibitors of mRNA translation and predicted regulators of the Sigma1 and Sigma2 receptors. Further studies of these host factor targeting agents, including their combination with drugs that directly target viral enzymes, could lead to a therapeutic regimen to treat COVID-19.
Abstract
With the first reports on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the scientific community working in the field of type III IFNs (IFN-λ) realized that this class of IFNs could play an important role in this and other emerging viral infections. In this Viewpoint, we present our opinion on the benefits and potential limitations of using IFN-λ to prevent, limit, and treat these dangerous viral infections.
Abstract
Rapid and accurate SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing is essential for controlling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The current gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis is real-time RT-PCR detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal swabs. Low sensitivity, exposure risks to healthcare workers, and global shortages of swabs and personal protective equipment, however, necessitate the validation of new diagnostic approaches. Saliva is a promising candidate for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics because (1) collection is minimally invasive and can reliably be self-administered and (2) saliva has exhibited comparable sensitivity to nasopharyngeal swabs in detection of other respiratory pathogens, including endemic human coronaviruses, in previous studies. To validate the use of saliva for SARS-CoV-2 detection, we tested nasopharyngeal and saliva samples from confirmed COVID-19 patients and self-collected samples from healthcare workers on COVID-19 wards. When we compared SARS-CoV-2 detection from patient-matched nasopharyngeal and saliva samples, we found that saliva yielded greater detection sensitivity and consistency throughout the course of infection. Furthermore, we report less variability in self-sample collection of saliva. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that saliva is a viable and more sensitive alternative to nasopharyngeal swabs and could enable at-home self-administered sample collection for accurate large-scale SARS-CoV-2 testing.
Abstract
Rapid and accurate SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing is essential for controlling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The current gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis is real-time RT-PCR detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal swabs. Low sensitivity, exposure risks to healthcare workers, and global shortages of swabs and personal protective equipment, however, necessitate the validation of new diagnostic approaches. Saliva is a promising candidate for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics because (1) collection is minimally invasive and can reliably be self-administered and (2) saliva has exhibited comparable sensitivity to nasopharyngeal swabs in detection of other respiratory pathogens, including endemic human coronaviruses, in previous studies. To validate the use of saliva for SARS-CoV-2 detection, we tested nasopharyngeal and saliva samples from confirmed COVID-19 patients and self-collected samples from healthcare workers on COVID-19 wards. When we compared SARS-CoV-2 detection from patient-matched nasopharyngeal and saliva samples, we found that saliva yielded greater detection sensitivity and consistency throughout the course of infection. Furthermore, we report less variability in self-sample collection of saliva. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that saliva is a viable and more sensitive alternative to nasopharyngeal swabs and could enable at-home self-administered sample collection for accurate large-scale SARS-CoV-2 testing.