Support for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics
The LabHive digital platform aims to provide necessary resources to diagnostic centres to enable more tests for SARS-CoV-2. Tobias Opialla from the MDC is one of 15 volunteers who has been involved in the project since the #WirvsVirus Hackathon organized by the German government.
An interdisciplinary team of 15 scientists, physicians, web developers, and security experts will use the digital platform LabHive to bundle testing capacities for SARS-CoV-2 and to compensate for bottlenecks in diagnostic centers. On LabHive qualified volunteers can provide their manpower, and research laboratories can offer reagents and equipment. Diagnostic centres have access to these services and can call on support if needed.
"In many university or non-university research labs, the corona crisis has restricted scientific operations," says Dr. Tobias Opialla from the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), an institution of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC). "LabHive provides resources such as personnel, reagents or equipment that might otherwise remain unused." Like all participants, Opialla works voluntarily on the development and implementation of the platform.
The idea for this project was born during the #WirVsVirus-Hackathon of the German government and the project is currently funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Their partner is the Björn Steiger Foundation.
Text: Christina Anders / Image: @ thisisengineering (Unsplash)