Australian researchers deliver ‘rapid’ world-first COVID-19 blood test

World-first Australian research has delivered a COVID-19 blood test which can identify recent positive cases in under 20 minutes.

Rather than swab testing, which tests for people currently positive with coronavirus, blood tests will be used to accur­ately identify if someone has had COVID-19. Picture: AFP

World-first Australian research has delivered a “rapid” COVID-19 blood test that can identify recent positive cases in less than 20 minutes.

Researchers at Monash University have developed a simple test which can be used on blood-typing infrastructure, leading to hopes it will provide a crucial tool in community tracing and invest­igating the efficacy of any potential vaccine.

Rather than swab testing, which tests for people currently positive with coronavirus, the blood test will be used to accur­ately identify if someone has had COVID-19 recently, an issue that has proven problematic so far.

Lead researcher Simon Corrie said similar tests were available under emergency circum­stances, but rushed development meant they hadn’t been properly tested and weren’t “very good”.

This practice had the potential to become upscaled immediately for serological testing, Dr Corrie said. However, while early tests had worked “nicely”, he said researchers­ would take their time to ensure it could be rolled out at a commercial level.

“If you don’t have the infection any more, you’ve recovered, there’s no trace of it by a swab test in your body. So you’ll never know that you had it or not,’’ Dr Corrie said “So the antibody tests can tell you’ve actually had COVID-19. And reliably, probably up to two or three weeks ago.

“So these tests are going to be very useful in tracking where the virus has recently been in the community. It‘ll be helpful with contact tracing, it’ll be helpful with community surveillance.”

With the new blood test having minimal differences with a classic blood test, Dr Corrie said he hoped it could be used in the global fight against the virus, particularly­ in investigating the efficacy of a potential vaccine.

“This simple assay (analysis), based on commonly used blood-typing infrastructure and already manufactured at scale, can be rolled out rapidly across Australia and beyond. This test can be used in any lab that has blood-typing infrastructure, which is ­extremely common across the world,” he said.

But for the time being, researchers are now hunting for a commercial partnership to ramp up testing. Dr Corrie said if a partner could be secured within the next month, the blood test would be available in about six months.

While he is likely to draw much of the plaudits, along with other lead researchers Mark Banasza­k Holl and Gil Garnier, Dr Corrie said much of the credit should go to the team of PhD students­ who “paused their life and jumped in”.

Professor Holl, head of chemical engineering at Monash University, also commended the work of talented students.

“This simple, rapid, and easily scalable approach has immediate application in SARS-CoV-2 ­serological testing, and is a useful platform for assay development beyond the COVID-19 pandem­ic,’’ he said.

“We are indebted to the work of our PhD students in bringing this to life.’’