Ars Electronica Garden London

CONTAIN – Mobile COVID19 Emergency Testing Facilities

Open Cell (UK)

CONTAIN units are rapidly deployable COVID-19 testing laboratories housed in shipping containers. The design allows transportation to any location through standard shipping services. Automated RT-qPCR protocols can deliver 2,400 tests per unit in 24 hours.

CONTAIN

Mobile COVID19 Emergency Testing Facilities

CONTAIN a decentralized and open-source approach for testing COVID19. OpenCell has developed mobile COVID19 testing labs that can be placed at any location needed. Each container is equipped with 5 liquid handling robots and 2 qPCR machines and can provide results in as little as 5 hours. A single lab can be run by a single operator and can process 2,400 tests a day.

The testing involves a procedure called reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). In short, it involves extracting viral RNA from a sample and amplifying it to a measurable level so that it is possible to see whether a person is infected with COVID-19. What differentiates OpenCell’s labs is the automated RNA extraction protocol using a magnetic-bead method which insulates OpenCell from some of the global demand on RNA extraction kits. Another main benefit of OpenCell’s project is that it is open-source. Over 150 volunteers worldwide contributed towards the challenges involved in developing testing capacity. The blueprints and protocols are available to everyone in form of a living document allowing people across the world to contribute and reproduce the project.

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Project Credits / Acknowledgements

OpenCell London: Helene Steiner, Kenneth T. Walker, Matthew Donora, Thomas Meany
Worldwide contributors: Anthony Thomas, Manoj Nathwani, Alexander James Philips, Krishma Ramgoolam, Kjara S. Pilch, Phil Oberacker, Tomasz Piotr Jurkowski, Rares Marius Gosman, Aubin Fleiss, Alex Perkins, Neil MacKenzie, Davide Danovi

Open Cell