Director of the Center for Precision and Regenerative Medicine Albert Rizvanov gave a comment on the matter.

"The plasma of a person who had been infected with a coronavirus was used as a test sample. This is the first such donor in Tatarstan Kazan University provides scientific support for this project to the Republican Blood Center. We are responsible for testing for the presence of antibodies in patients with COVID- 19," he said.

ELISA testing takes about several hours and requires a specialized immunological laboratory. The test system has shown the ability to detect the presence of antibodies. Over the next week, the university plans to optimize the test further. The next step is to package and register the system.

“The next step is to create express tests based on test strips. We have purchased the necessary equipment, and we are expecting delivery from China to open a pilot production. During this time, we will finalize our test system, as well as the protein production system, and we will solve others biochemical and immunological tasks. The placement details are currently discussed with the DNA Research Center. The research team is working at KFU, so it would be more convenient to localize equipment here," Rizvanov noted. “The equipment is versatile, and it can be used to produce various types of test systems. In the future, in the event of another pandemic, we will be technologically ready to deploy production systems for new challenges.”

Apart from the test strips, KFU is also working on a vaccine. First results should become available in late May.

Source text: Rufina Gimaletdinova

Translation: Yury Nurmeev