But I'm just a layperson. Where are bimolecular hackers gathering to talk about the concrete steps it takes to not only set this up, but calibrate it (for example, where do I source the calibration dyes and buffers I need to use), and validate its accuracy and precision, etc.? I've found there are a number of primer suppliers, but I'm also interested in whether or not hackers are assembling their own primers, or even those looking into CRISPR-based detection [1].
[1] https://www.broadinstitute.org/files/publications/special/COVID-19%20detection%20(updated).pdf
It's kind of like deciding you want to build your own 3 story house by hand. You can do it, but buying a bunch of lumber and tools is a far cry from having the necessary skill to actually build it. Science is hard.
There's also a major ethical issue about the medical implications of testing someone for a stigmatized disease if you're not clear on the validity of the test. False positives and false negatives have a major impact on your community. And hand-waving away the implications of reporting a false positive or negative with the statistical caveats of the results doesn't cut it.
Patients tend to take test results at face value, so the responsibility to of weighing the ethical ramifications of when it's strictly necessary and when it's irresponsible to administer an unreliable test for a given patient fall squarely on your shoulders. (Not that that excuses the current administration's policy of negatively biasing reporting by not testing anyone.)
you dont need the electrophoresis unless you want to do something like restriction analysis across the different samples.
mainly its a test for presence of sars-cov2.
very often this involves annealing a molecular reporter such as a dye florescence probe, to the mRNA with specificity to regions characteristic of the strain your looking for.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Idania_Gonzalez-Perez/p...
https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download
---------------------------------------------
https://hackaday.com/2016/05/03/dna-extraction-with-a-3d-pri...
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/23/openfuge-an-open-source-cent...
https://hackaday.com/2013/09/21/vcr-centrifuge/
https://hackaday.com/2020/03/10/open-source-collaboration-ta...
-------------------------------------------
Even if you develop a perfect test, it's unlikely to help the people you're testing. People who are feeling sick (and those who aren't) should be staying home and minimizing contact with others, and going to a hospital if they are sick enough to require doing so. A positive or negative test data point doesn't change that.
The data could be useful epidemiologically, but only if you can convince others to use your data. That will likely be difficult to do.
Most importantly, you're very likely to get sick yourself handling 10s or 100s of samples without training and appropriate facilities.
Totally appreciate your drive, but your time might be better spent contacting your representatives and making it clear we expect better from them.
As there isn't a treatment plan and it seems like recommendations are for anyone with cold symptoms to self quarantine for 2 weeks+.
I feel like it's so wide spread now we just have to ride it out, use social distancing, avoiding events/meetings to try to minimize/stretch out the peak number of cases.
Maybe save the test kits for when we do have a reliable treatment. Or better yet if the treatment is safe and inexpensive hand it out like candy.