WEBVTT 00:00:01.250 --> 00:00:05.045 Tonight, the centers for disease control is reporting the first case of 00:00:05.078 --> 00:00:11.777 Coronavirus has made it here in the US COVID-19 can be characterized as a 00:00:11.810 --> 00:00:15.267 pandemic. The world now has more than a million confirmed cases of 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:20.646 COVID-19. More than 100,000 American lives lost the Coronavirus. The 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:26.056 confirmed COVID-19 death toll has now surpassed 1 million a dire picture 00:00:26.089 --> 00:00:31.396 of a virus spiraling out of control shattering record. This virus was 00:00:31.429 --> 00:00:37.326 especially insidious. We have 100,000 people in our ASU community. How are 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.707 we going to get them all tested? It was immensely gratifying the response 00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:49.286 of the ASU community. Creating a BCT L was a massive undertaking that I 00:00:49.319 --> 00:00:53.866 think could truly only happen at a university that's as interdisciplinary 00:00:53.899 --> 00:00:58.765 as, as U is just a massive effort of volunteers and getting all of that up 00:00:58.798 --> 00:01:02.875 and running. They were everything it would not have happened without them 00:01:02.908 --> 00:01:06.367 to date. We've done over three quarters of a million tests in our lab. 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:11.826 This laboratory is on a par with the best clinical laboratories in the 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:19.859 country. We're here to save people's lives. 00:01:24.230 --> 00:01:28.186 The whole point when you're in the middle of an epidemic is understanding 00:01:28.219 --> 00:01:32.546 who has the infection and who might give it to somebody else. And the best 00:01:32.579 --> 00:01:36.665 way to get at that is to have some way of testing people, making sure that 00:01:36.698 --> 00:01:40.426 you can identify who's sick and who isn't a critical element to stopping 00:01:40.459 --> 00:01:46.426 the virus is broad scale testing. Testing is not well understood by the 00:01:46.459 --> 00:01:53.697 entire population. It is the essence of controlling the pandemic. If you 00:01:53.730 --> 00:01:58.096 can't identify infected people and you can't remove them from the 00:01:58.129 --> 00:02:04.025 transmission flow, then there is no hope of containing the virus. And this 00:02:04.058 --> 00:02:10.416 virus was especially insidious because there were many, many individuals, 00:02:10.449 --> 00:02:15.786 maybe 40% of the population that were infected that had no symptoms 00:02:15.819 --> 00:02:19.856 whatsoever. So they thought they were well and they were just walking 00:02:19.889 --> 00:02:25.767 around infecting other people. So the only way to identify them was 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:29.457 through testing 00:02:29.490 --> 00:02:34.406 with rising cases and the urgent need for testing. The ABC TL was born in 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:39.036 the spring of 2020. It was apparent from what happened in China and from 00:02:39.069 --> 00:02:41.725 what was even beginning to happen a little bit in Seattle and so on that 00:02:41.758 --> 00:02:45.786 the need was testing was big and we would need something like that at a su. 00:02:45.819 --> 00:02:48.717 And so I had conversations with President Crowe, for example, who was 00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:52.487 asking me what are we going to do? We have 100,000 people in our A SU 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:55.585 community, how are we going to get them all tested? And so I started 00:02:55.618 --> 00:02:59.036 having conversations with be Morrigan who is one of the professors in my 00:02:59.069 --> 00:03:02.967 center. And it became clear that we had a lot of the technology that we 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:08.202 would need to do that kind of testing here. We had a call out for 00:03:08.235 --> 00:03:12.482 individuals around the campus who had any kind of expertise that was 00:03:12.515 --> 00:03:18.123 applicable to this kind of testing, which is by definition complex. It's a 00:03:18.156 --> 00:03:25.387 molecular test and it required all kinds of support from people who would 00:03:25.420 --> 00:03:30.629 run the systems that made it possible to collect the specimens to 00:03:30.662 --> 00:03:35.468 transport the specimens, to test the specimens and to return the results 00:03:35.501 --> 00:03:41.588 to patients. It was immensely gratifying the response of the A SU 00:03:41.621 --> 00:03:47.626 community to come and meet this challenge. We had to make testing 00:03:47.659 --> 00:03:54.036 available widely to the entire community. We had to make it free. We had 00:03:54.069 --> 00:03:59.066 to make it not only accurate, but we required speed plus accuracy. You 00:03:59.099 --> 00:04:04.457 can't remove an infected individual from the transmission of the virus if 00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:09.975 they get their result from their test 10 days after you perform the test. 00:04:10.008 --> 00:04:15.166 So we were able not only to perform a test that was incredibly specific 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:20.536 and sensitive, but we were able to do it in 48 hours or less. So that was 00:04:20.569 --> 00:04:26.145 an essential ingredient to our success PC R testing and especially for 00:04:26.178 --> 00:04:30.015 SARS CO V two, what we do is we actually extract all of the nucleic acids 00:04:30.048 --> 00:04:33.947 contained within the sample. And then we use some pretty clever chemistry 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:39.366 to actually design probes that are attracted to the SARS CB two RN A. Once 00:04:39.399 --> 00:04:42.995 those probes bind to the nucleic acids in your sample, they actually 00:04:43.028 --> 00:04:46.305 amplify and then that fluorescent signal that they produce amplifies as 00:04:46.338 --> 00:04:49.106 well. And so that's how we're actually able to detect the presence of SARS 00:04:49.139 --> 00:04:53.805 CO V two in the sample. With such an ambitious goal, there were bound to 00:04:53.838 --> 00:04:57.805 be challenges in pursuit of becoming a federally legal testing laboratory. 00:04:57.838 --> 00:05:03.986 With funding being one of the main concerns. Funding for this effort was 00:05:04.019 --> 00:05:10.276 clearly a challenge. We were ready to perform the testing, but it costs a 00:05:10.309 --> 00:05:18.309 lot of money. And we received big grants from private foundations from the 00:05:18.778 --> 00:05:26.467 State of Arizona. And we also received contract monies from essential 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:32.356 organizations like the power companies for whom testing was essential in 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:36.645 order to maintain a safe work environment so that they could provide us 00:05:36.678 --> 00:05:41.387 with essential services. These services could not have been possible 00:05:41.420 --> 00:05:45.217 without first jumping the hurdles of federally controlled quality and 00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:52.526 ethics. Clear regulations assure that every clinical laboratory is 00:05:52.559 --> 00:05:56.846 operating according to the highest scientific standards. It assures 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:02.687 patients that their tests are being performed in a controlled environment 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:08.096 with very high standards being addressed on every single level. The that 00:06:08.129 --> 00:06:12.046 you're doing the reagents that you're using the environment, the training 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:16.895 of the individuals who are doing the test, all of this is regulated under 00:06:16.928 --> 00:06:22.067 cle so we had to immediately make sure that we were compliant with all of 00:06:22.100 --> 00:06:26.096 those federal regulations. And then there are the federal regulations that 00:06:26.129 --> 00:06:32.947 deal with patient privacy. Patient privacy is extremely important. 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:35.656 Whenever you step into the clinical space, there's just a lot of 00:06:35.689 --> 00:06:41.717 opportunity to obtain patient health information and it's our job to 00:06:41.750 --> 00:06:46.197 protect it. We did a lot of things to first to make sure that we could 00:06:46.230 --> 00:06:50.106 match the patient's identity back with their sample, right when they first 00:06:50.139 --> 00:06:53.437 gave it. But also at the end, it's an effort to ensure that people can 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:58.645 have confidence in us as we manage their data part of reassuring and 00:06:58.678 --> 00:07:02.486 strengthening this public confidence comes from the lab passing surprise 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:05.836 inspections with flying colors 00:07:05.869 --> 00:07:11.236 early on in the evolution of the laboratory, it was the spring of of 2020 00:07:11.269 --> 00:07:16.955 we had only been operating a couple of months but one Monday morning 00:07:16.988 --> 00:07:24.447 unannounced two cli inspectors from the local office of CLI show up in the 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:31.075 laboratory to inspect all our processes. It was a bit anxiety provoking to 00:07:31.108 --> 00:07:36.616 say the least, but we in fact, have spent four hours with the inspectors 00:07:36.649 --> 00:07:41.075 going through all our standard operating procedures, all of our policies, 00:07:41.108 --> 00:07:45.067 all of our data. And at the end of the day, even though we had only been 00:07:45.100 --> 00:07:49.825 operating for four months, we passed our unannounced clear inspection. So 00:07:49.858 --> 00:07:56.086 this was a moment of pride and also relief 00:07:56.119 --> 00:07:59.765 cultivating a productive and sufficient supply chain became a difficult 00:07:59.798 --> 00:08:05.526 process on day one, I was combing the internet looking for options for the 00:08:05.559 --> 00:08:10.366 materials we needed gloves, the swabs themselves and everywhere we looked 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:13.967 , everything online was saying that they were, were essentially sold out 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:18.866 back ordered. I started contacting the various vendors that we are in 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:23.301 contact with here at a su and say, what can you get me? What options are 00:08:23.334 --> 00:08:27.430 available? Everything was already sold out at that point giving us back 00:08:27.463 --> 00:08:32.481 order dates of anywhere from six weeks to three months. At that point, we 00:08:32.514 --> 00:08:37.861 did a massive donation request to the A SU community. We had donations 00:08:37.894 --> 00:08:41.851 being dropped off here at the Bios Design Institute. Just a massive effort 00:08:41.884 --> 00:08:48.157 of volunteers in the beginning, getting all of that up and running 00:08:48.190 --> 00:08:52.746 today. Over a year after the start of the pandemic, the lab continues to 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:57.486 conduct around the clock testing in an effort to save lives. Currently, 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:03.946 the lab is running like a well oiled machine. We have really been able to 00:09:03.979 --> 00:09:09.787 conquer every major and minor challenge that we were presented. This 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:15.606 laboratory is on a par with the best clinical laboratories in the country 00:09:15.639 --> 00:09:19.356 throughout the entire process. We've really needed a goal to make the 00:09:19.389 --> 00:09:23.346 process as efficient as possible. So we've done a lot of things where 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:27.996 we've examined all of our turnaround times examined when the samples come 00:09:28.029 --> 00:09:34.366 into the lab looked at how long it takes to walk a piece of the instrument 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:37.657 from one side of the room. To the other, all of these things were timed 00:09:37.690 --> 00:09:41.667 and broken down into their component parts and then really streamlined as 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:45.706 much as we can, whether it's by changing the program of the robotics so 00:09:45.739 --> 00:09:50.625 that it uses 2.7 tips rather than 4.5 tips. We've done all of that 00:09:50.658 --> 00:09:55.476 optimization by just really carefully looking at the data. Automation was 00:09:55.509 --> 00:09:59.255 a heavy lift in being able to make the lab more efficient by combining 00:09:59.288 --> 00:10:03.816 automation with human effort. The ABC TL was able to process thousands of 00:10:03.849 --> 00:10:07.986 test samples per day to date. We've done over three quarters of a million 00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:11.436 tests in our lab that would only have been possible by doing something 00:10:11.469 --> 00:10:14.846 like saliva testing, which made it much easier for people to give their 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:18.547 samples. But you can't do that many samples. If you don't automate the 00:10:18.580 --> 00:10:23.787 process, if you try to do those all by hand, the opportunity for error, 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:27.307 the opportunity for delays, the number of people you'd need to have 00:10:27.340 --> 00:10:31.375 working in the lab would be just too great. And so we designed our process 00:10:31.408 --> 00:10:36.025 from the beginning to run on robots and then we've just expanded that 00:10:36.058 --> 00:10:40.086 process with more robots and more technology to go faster. We would 00:10:40.119 --> 00:10:44.037 typically be sometimes doing anywhere between eight and 10,000 samples a 00:10:44.070 --> 00:10:48.246 day. Imagine how much time it would take to unscrew the caps of 10,000 00:10:48.279 --> 00:10:51.986 tube samples and manually take out the sample from each of those tubes. 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:56.946 It's just not possible in any kind of reasonable time scale. 00:10:56.979 --> 00:11:00.836 Despite eventually gearing towards more automation, the need for community 00:11:00.869 --> 00:11:05.657 contributions was still imperative. The ABC TL continued to hire even more 00:11:05.690 --> 00:11:12.275 members and volunteers. The contribution of the workers, it was the 00:11:12.308 --> 00:11:18.986 electricity that made this machine run people. Recognizing that there was 00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:26.446 an emergent situation, being motivated to help, committed to help, having 00:11:26.479 --> 00:11:34.380 the expertise and the energy to commit to the in the midst of a chaotic 00:11:34.413 --> 00:11:39.289 situation, the volunteers that came to work in this laboratory, they were 00:11:39.322 --> 00:11:43.500 everything it would not have happened without them. Training and 00:11:43.533 --> 00:11:47.559 recruiting within this entire scenario has been super interesting because 00:11:47.592 --> 00:11:50.870 we've had to work really closely with hr we've had to work really closely 00:11:50.903 --> 00:11:54.419 with recruiters throughout the valley to try to get as many people in as 00:11:54.452 --> 00:11:59.643 fast as we can. And once they're in the lab, we kind of use ac one do one 00:11:59.676 --> 00:12:03.832 teach one method where people will shadow an experienced technician for a 00:12:03.865 --> 00:12:07.592 while. And then after their shadowing period is over, they actually do 00:12:07.625 --> 00:12:10.952 something that we call operator proficiency, which means that they are 00:12:10.985 --> 00:12:15.351 observed doing a run, but the observer is totally hands off. They have to 00:12:15.384 --> 00:12:18.683 do it all on their own. And then after that, they're actually cleared to 00:12:18.716 --> 00:12:23.275 operate. The clinical test student. Volunteers were at the forefront of 00:12:23.308 --> 00:12:27.307 these contributions, many of whom studied at the Edson College of Nursing 00:12:27.340 --> 00:12:30.525 and Health Innovation, 00:12:30.558 --> 00:12:35.566 the COVID-19 S survey was just an experience that we had where we were 00:12:35.599 --> 00:12:42.366 able to go in and da P pe and help people with their saliva testing. So we 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:46.287 did everything from triaging and explaining like how to actually do the 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:50.581 test to turning in the test and keeping all of that organized and sending 00:12:50.614 --> 00:12:55.162 it off to a lab to further be tested. My experience with it was very 00:12:55.195 --> 00:12:59.400 positive, it was really enlightening. I had a really positive experience 00:12:59.433 --> 00:13:03.701 getting to not only help my university but my community as well. 00:13:03.734 --> 00:13:07.241 Communication was key in bringing together this group of professionals 00:13:07.274 --> 00:13:12.996 and volunteers with diverse experiences and skill sets. It required not 00:13:13.029 --> 00:13:18.755 only seamless processes being established and being monitored, but it 00:13:18.788 --> 00:13:23.625 required seamless communication and teamwork among the people who were 00:13:23.658 --> 00:13:28.196 carrying this out. This laboratory has brought together the most 00:13:28.229 --> 00:13:36.186 extraordinary group of people and now I feel that we're bonded forever 00:13:36.219 --> 00:13:40.616 as the ABC TL evolves. The lab hopes to match the constant changes of the 00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:45.625 pandemic to better serve the community. More community outreach and future 00:13:45.658 --> 00:13:51.356 research on COVID-19 is expected to come from a su 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:57.606 the evolution of this lab is still in progress and I would love to see us 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:02.787 expand our test menu. We are in a good place to do that. Now, we have the 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:08.265 expertise on board. We have all the equipment on board, all of the systems 00:14:08.298 --> 00:14:11.967 on board. We have everyone trained to be able to collect specimens, 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:17.395 transport specimens. We also have the capacity to be able to do antibody 00:14:17.428 --> 00:14:24.537 tests from blood to be able to judge whether or not someone has generated 00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:28.537 an immune response that makes them protected against infection from the 00:14:28.570 --> 00:14:34.436 virus, either because they had been infected and recovered or because they 00:14:34.469 --> 00:14:38.625 got the vaccine. We're really excited about having developed a clinical 00:14:38.658 --> 00:14:41.157 lab here at Bios Design Institute. The fact that we have a direct 00:14:41.190 --> 00:14:44.015 connection now to people and being able to collect samples from them for 00:14:44.048 --> 00:14:47.467 research purposes is outstanding. We're going to continue testing until 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:50.316 there's no need for more testing. We're expanding some of the tests that 00:14:50.349 --> 00:14:54.321 we run including serology tests that tell us whether people developed 00:14:54.354 --> 00:14:57.871 antibodies to the virus and what types of antibodies they developed to the 00:14:57.904 --> 00:15:01.081 virus and then possibly adding additional tests to things like the flu and 00:15:01.114 --> 00:15:05.351 other respiratory viruses that may have an impact on how COVID-19 behaves. 00:15:05.384 --> 00:15:08.400 So we're going to continue developing the laboratory and building it as 00:15:08.433 --> 00:15:12.515 we need to help support the community. 00:15:12.548 --> 00:15:16.297 At the end of the day, the efforts of the ABC TL could not have been 00:15:16.330 --> 00:15:20.255 accomplished without teamwork. The fact that so many individuals from 00:15:20.288 --> 00:15:23.525 different backgrounds and professions are able to work together towards a 00:15:23.558 --> 00:15:28.025 common humanitarian goal, speaks to a s us passion for innovation through 00:15:28.058 --> 00:15:34.765 multidisciplinary efforts. Creating ABC TL was a massive undertaking that 00:15:34.798 --> 00:15:38.436 I think could truly only happen at a university that's as 00:15:38.469 --> 00:15:42.302 interdisciplinary as a SU is specifically within bios design, how 00:15:42.335 --> 00:15:47.052 interdisciplinary, the whole nature of that building is. So we are a 00:15:47.085 --> 00:15:50.971 diverse group of people with a diverse group of skills and we all work 00:15:51.004 --> 00:15:54.292 really closely together and we have known each other since before the 00:15:54.325 --> 00:15:57.451 pandemic. So I think the design of the university to be very 00:15:57.484 --> 00:16:02.231 interdisciplinary, very intertwined with each other. That was the main 00:16:02.264 --> 00:16:06.831 thing that made ABC TL so successful. In addition to just all the 00:16:06.864 --> 00:16:11.775 tremendous support from administration, starting a clinical lab at a 00:16:11.808 --> 00:16:15.875 university that that doesn't have a medical school is uncommon. We were 00:16:15.908 --> 00:16:21.765 really fortunate to have great leadership with Doctor Lever, as well as Dr 00:16:21.798 --> 00:16:25.667 Compton and Doctor Meru. And that really helped push this over the finish 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:28.696 line. And we had such great support from the state and some of our 00:16:28.729 --> 00:16:31.917 partners because of all these people, their leadership and a lot of hard 00:16:31.950 --> 00:16:36.047 work, we were able to ensure that people were getting the accurate results 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:42.956 that they needed during a pretty helpless time, 00:16:42.989 --> 00:16:47.346 a year into the ever changing pandemic. One factor has stayed the same, 00:16:47.379 --> 00:16:52.436 the lab's mission to save lives. They were doing was not just research for 00:16:52.469 --> 00:16:56.736 the sake of research, but they were doing science and technology for the 00:16:56.769 --> 00:16:59.657 sake of saving people's lives. To this day. We still say that at the end 00:16:59.690 --> 00:17:03.946 of our meeting to remind ourselves what we're here for, we're here to save 00:17:03.979 --> 00:17:08.456 people's lives. And that's what we feel. We are all doing. We are saving 00:17:08.489 --> 00:17:16.156 lives. That is the biggest motivator that could exist for us. We are doing 00:17:16.189 --> 00:17:24.189 something that is good and something that is humanitarian and something 00:17:24.479 --> 00:17:28.915 that is necessary. 00:17:28.948 --> 00:17:31.397 The ABC 00:17:31.430 --> 00:17:34.189 we save lives.