Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State University researchers and the Air Force Research Laboratory will be collecting blood and saliva samples from people who may have Covid-19 antibodies as a part of a pilot study aimed at validating industry testing kits.
Researchers will later be reaching to sample up to 4,526 participants over a 12-week period ending in September that will occur at an off-campus location in Fairborn. In a statement on the study, Wright State and the AFRL said the researchers will follow strict disinfection and data protection procedures.
Researchers from the 711th Human Performance Wing Airman Systems Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, Air Force Lifecycle Management Center (AFLCMC), and Ginkgo Bioworks, are investigating existing and emerging testing methods to determine the number of people with detectable Covid-19 antibodies, but no known exposure or confirmed clinical illness; and research how to leverage technological advancements to demonstrate methods of detecting active Covid-19 infection that can be scaled.
Sampling for the study will be done by researchers from the 711th Human Performance Wing in collaboration with Courtney Sulentic, an associate professor of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Mateen Rizki, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
