You might be able to go out and party sooner than you think.

Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification.

LAMP for short.

That is a mouthful, but you might just name-drop it at your next Zoom cocktail hour.

I recently came across LAMP, reading a pre-print published just last month from Columbia University, and it certainly caught my attention.

It looks to me like LAMP may make it possible for you to go out with your friends and party at your favorite pub sometime soon.  In person.

Or attend a medium-sized concert or sporting event.

Or maybe even go back to school, or get on an airplane.

Safely.

Before a vaccine for Covid-19 is available.

Here is how LAMP will let you party
As you pull into the parking lot, an attendant gives you a tiny little vial (after charging a small fee on your credit card).  You spit into it, seal it and hand it back along with your cell phone number.  The attendant snaps a photo of you and then directs you to your parking space. You sit in your car and wait.

15 minutes later you get a text saying you are approved, along with a picture containing a bar code and a time-stamped image of your face.  You get out of your car and go to the entrance of the venue, where you are greeted by a friendly person holding a bar code scanner.  After displaying your time-stamped picture / bar code on your phone for validation, you are admitted to an evening of dancing and partying with all of your friends.

And... No Coronaviruses allowed.

Technology
Here is a 90 second video that describes how the technology behind LAMP works.  The video is a little geeky but it shows how the technique will amplify and detect the RNA that is unique to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19).  

LAMP to the rescue!

Once you have a tiny vile with thousands of nucleic acid loops floating around, there are many ways to detect it optically.  And choosing the correct primers will ensure that only Covid-19 RNA will be amplified thousands of times, which will be obvious to see.  

No Covid?  Nothing to amplify.  So, if the solution remains clear, you are good to go.  However, if you see a colored (or a cloudy) solution you better get on home, you've got Covid.

LAMP normally takes at least 30 minutes to work and some of the reagents involved are deactivated by saliva.  But the recent work at Columbia has shown how to get around these issues and produce results in about 15 minutes.  

Getting LAMP to Market?
I have no doubt that someone will quickly commercialize this and obtain FDA approval for the test.  It is very accurate (100% specificity and 97% sensitivity according to a recent experiment).  And inexpensive. 

It would normally take a year or more to commercialize this scheme.  But this will be a lot easier and significantly less risky than a vaccine.  It should come to market much faster.

I am a believer in market forces - the demand for such a thing, if it works as described, will be tremendous.  

Not to mention that it would immediately solve the long turn around times folks are experiencing at the various state-run Covid medical test sites right now - this is arguably a much more important application for LAMP as week-long waiting for results makes contact tracing impossible. 

So, my prediction is that LAMP for Covid will come to market very quickly, even though it is presently in an early research stage. 

Which is why you haven't heard of it. 

Until now.

And it can't come soon enough for some of us.  Maybe, if we're lucky, just in time for the office Christmas party.

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