Validation of a rapid, saliva-based, and ultra-sensitive SARS-CoV-2 screening system for pandemic-scale infection surveillance

Without any realistic prospect of comprehensive global vaccine coverage and lasting immunity, control of pandemics such as COVID-19 will require implementation of large-scale, rapid identification and isolation of infectious individuals to limit further transmission. Here, we describe an automated, high-throughput integrated screening platform, incorporating saliva-based loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technology, that is designed for population-scale sensitive detection of infectious carriers of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Central to this surveillance system is the “Sentinel” testing instrument, which is capable of reporting results within 25 min of saliva sample collection with a throughput of up to 3840 results per hour. It incorporates continuous flow loading of samples at random intervals to cost-effectively adjust for fluctuations in testing demand. Independent validation of our saliva-based RT-LAMP technology on an automated LAMP instrument coined the “Sentinel”, found 98.7% sensitivity, 97.6% specificity, and 98% accuracy against a RT-PCR comparator assay, confirming its suitability for surveillance screening. This Sentinel surveillance system offers a feasible and scalable approach to complement vaccination, to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants, and control future pandemics to save lives

Validation of a rapid, saliva-based, and ultra-sensitive SARS-CoV-2 screening system for pandemic-scale infection surveillance

Without any realistic prospect of comprehensive global vaccine coverage and lasting immunity, control of pandemics such as COVID-19 will require implementation of large-scale, rapid identification and isolation of infectious individuals to limit further transmission. Here, we describe an automated, high-throughput integrated screening platform, incorporating saliva-based loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technology, that is designed for population-scale sensitive detection of infectious carriers of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Central to this surveillance system is the "Sentinel" testing instrument, which is capable of reporting results within 25 min of saliva sample collection with a throughput of up to 3840 results per hour. It incorporates continuous flow loading of samples at random intervals to cost-effectively adjust for fluctuations in testing demand. Independent validation of our saliva-based RT-LAMP technology on an automated LAMP instrument coined the "Sentinel", found 98.7% sensitivity, 97.6% specificity, and 98% accuracy against a RT-PCR comparator assay, confirming its suitability for surveillance screening. This Sentinel surveillance system offers a feasible and scalable approach to complement vaccination, to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants, and control future pandemics to save lives

Metamodernism, the Anthropocene, and the Resurgence of Historicity: Ben Lerner’s 10:04 and “the utopian glimmer of fiction”

Postmodernism has been characterized by a reductive presentism that suppresses historicity and neglects the possibility of the future. If we have seen a shift from postmodernism to a different cultural logic and structure of feeling—as, indeed, many critics argue—it therefore follows that this may also entail a new dominant in temporal dynamics. In this article, I take Ben Lerner’s 2014 novel 10:04 as a case study in literary metamodernism, though I also make reference to Adam Thirlwell’s 2011 novella Kapow! and Ruth Ozeki’s 2013 novel A Tale for the Time Being. Across these texts, and primarily in 10:04 as a quintessentially metamodernist fiction, I observe and explicate a metamodern temporality characterized, interconnectedly, by the aesthetics of heterochrony, sideshadowing, and the anticipation of retrospection. Whilst this temporal dynamic emerges from the precarity and volatility of experience in the twenty-first century, anthropocenic climate change has been and remains—I suggest—the greatest catalyst in producing this new temporal experience which resurrects historicity and resuscitates the future as a field of possibilities

Transketolase catalysed upgrading of l-arabinose: the one-step stereoselective synthesis of l-gluco-heptulose

Conversion of biomass using biocatalysis is likely to become a technology that contributes significantly to the future production of chemical building blocks, materials and transport fuels. Here the synthesis of a value-added chemical from L-arabinose, a major component of the carbohydrates in sugar beet pulp (SBP), in a concise and sustainable manner has been investigated. Biocatalytic conversions using transketolase variants have been developed for the efficient, scalable synthesis of a rare naturally occurring ketoheptose, L-gluco-heptulose, from L-arabinose. New active E. coli TK mutants that readily accept L-arabinose were identified using a versatile colorimetric screening assay and the reaction was performed on a preparative scale

“The Action to the Word, the Word to the Action” Reading Hamlet with Cavell and Derrida

The writings of Stanley Cavell and Jacques Derrida share many points of intersection. One of these is their mutual interest in Shakespeare’s Hamlet; another is their (very different) assessments of J.L. Austin’s philosophy, and his concept of performativity. In this paper, we demonstrate that Cavell’s and Derrida’s respective essays on Hamlet offer a surprising insight into their views on Austin’s notion of performativity. Since Hamlet abounds with oaths and promises, testimonies and bearing witness, what is surprising is not that these philosophers should have identified this theme but rather how they respond to it. We show that Derrida’s writings on Hamlet repeatedly draw and depend on the idea of performativity, amounting to a rapprochement with Austin’s concept; and we also show that Cavell questions the effectiveness of performatives in the play, in ways that sometimes resemble Derrida’s invocation of spectrality in the play