In the wake of the current COVID-19 crisis plaguing the world, many life science and health technology organizations are mobilizing ways to assist in containing and managing patient symptoms as well as racing toward a vaccine. While the world is approximately 12-18 months away from stemming the tide in the battle to eradicate COVID-19, organizations have made leaps and bounds in the changing nature of virtual diagnostics and virtual research and development to propel even alternative solutions to intersect external and internal resources to quickly scale up products and services at the interest of the greater good.
Over the course of 3.5 months, Rubix LS has been engaged in a global pandemic response campaign to fight against this emerging threat. The list below summarizes a few highlights of our activities during the fight.
Timeline of Our Response Though March 18, 2020
- December 29, 2019 – Rubix LS collaborates with APAC region companies on the emerging nCoV-2019 threat on characterization
- January 4, 2020 – Rubix LS in collaboration with National Institutes of Health obtains the genetic sequence of the coronavirus
- January 8, 2020 – Rubix LS creates an initial prototype of autonomous detection mask for bronchoalveolar fluid nCoV-2019 isolation (Project Gaius)
- January 29, 2020 – company finalizes prototype device (Project Gaius) and pathology characterization
- February 4, 2020 – company provides pilot data run to the Center for Disease Control
- February 5, 2020 – the creation of the ‘pact-16’ medical countermeasure plan for introduction to 16 major countries on mitigation, containment, and surveillance strategies.
- February 18, 2020 – deployment of epidemiological tracking tool to model real-time mutation mapping for nCoV-2019
- March 3, 2020 – joined the White House industry task force for developing responses to the nCoV-2019 pandemic.
- March 10, 2020 – partnered with global research organization on developing and deploying a real-time tracking of patient symptoms and design plans for state and hospital systems to accelerate countermeasures for patient & community safety.
Rubix has already anticipated the next phase of supporting the scale-up of manufacturing and long-term research needs that will be necessary for other infectious disease needs. From Rubix’s early work in Leishmaniasis, Lassa, West Nile, Zika, and more, we will continue to work together with public health, government, and other industry members to continue the fight toward infectious disease eradication worldwide.