Working Group Leads
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Pardis Sabeti, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Institute Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
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David Walt, Ph.D. |
Diagnostics Working Group
The Diagnostics Working Group began as a coalition of experts who came together in the earliest days of the pandemic as a rapid-response team to quickly develop diagnostic testing for Boston-area hospitals, including Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, Boston Children’s, and Boston Medical Center, among others. The group members subsequently turned their attention to identify and develop new technologies and approaches to provide accurate, rapid, and inexpensive testing that did not rely on access to extensive medical resources and infrastructure. This remains a critical focus of the group to this day. The group, which meets every two weeks, also collects and shares information on the FDA diagnostic test Emergency Use Authorization and approval process, large-scale test manufacturing, and other broad, systemic issues common in diagnostics research and development.
The Diagnostics Working Group was essential to the Boston medical community’s early response to the pandemic. Since then, it has helped create the Sample Access Accelerator, a consortium-wide COVID-19 clinical biospecimen repository supporting research, and contributed to the development of diagnostic tools like SHERLOCK one-pot testing. The technologies and advancements made over the last year have laid the foundation of strong pandemic preparedness and have potential to be used to improve diagnostics for many current global infectious diseases, which remain a leading cause of death worldwide.
To join the Diagnostics Working Group, please fill out this form.