LightDeck Diagnostics was awarded a $5.65 million contract to develop a rapid antigen test to detect SARS-CoV-2. The funding, provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is enough to advance the test to commercialization.

“The LightDeck COVID-19 Antigen Test is portable and delivers lab quality results in about five minutes, and is more sensitive than the lateral flow membrane assays available today,” Byron Hewett, president of the in vitro diagnostics business at LightDeck Diagnostics, told BioSpace.

The advantage of a rapid antigen test is that an infected individual can be detected and isolated in real time and contact tracing can be done right away.

Importantly, LightDeck Diagnostics’ rapid antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 also is easy for untrained personnel to use. “An interior nasal swab is put into a lysed buffer. An aliquot of that sample is put into the LightDeck cartridge. There are no other reagents to add. Once the cartridge is inserted into the analyzer, everything needed to analyze the sample is there,” Hewett explained.

Find out more in the press release.