Researchers from IEP SAS help to increase testing capacities for COVID-19

The rate of spread of COVID-19 disease is unprecedented in the modern history of our society. Despite many effective measures taken, “we have not yet won the battle”.
For several years, research group (Ing. V. Závišová, PhD., RNDr. M. Kubovčíková, PhD. and Ing. M. Koneracká, CSc.) within Department of Magnetism at Institute of Experimental Physics, SAS has been studying synthesis and physical properties of magnetic particles for biological applications. Their recent research activities include application possibilities of magnetic nanoparticles for diagnostics. They successfully managed to bound antibodies to the surface of magnetic nanoparticles, with ability to specifically bond to cancer cells and penetrate their structure. Nevertheless, work of this research group throughout the pandemic focuses on current needs.

The “10 000 tests a day” initiative approached us with a request for help regarding the preparation of magnetic nanoparticles to be used for isolation of coronavirus RNA (partial task of the virus RNA isolation procedure for PCR tests). We become interested in this task because it is very close to our research activities and the opportunity to contribute to a good cause was a big challenge for us. Our first prepared samples had excellent results. Currently, due to the interest in higher amounts of the samples we are trying to streamline the preparation process. However, only further results will show whether the particles prepared by modified procedure will be of the same quality. At the moment, team from Pavol Jozef Šafárik University deals with this topic as well, which we perceive as a very positive fact due to limited capacity and technical possibilities of our team. Together we can react faster to special requests, infrastructure of our departments complements each other and our current close cooperation is a good starting point for further research projects focused mainly on the use of acquired scientific knowledge for application purposes.
At the moment we are expecting results of further experiments, based on which we will choose the best procedure for preparation of the samples and thus ensure production on a larger scale. We were offered a cooperation from other departments of our Institute, which have the necessary experimental equipment and we will be glad to welcome their help if necessary.
The initiative is joined by approx. 200 Slovak scientists from different fields of research. Our role in the synthesis and surface modification of magnetic nanoparticles for virus RNA isolation is just a drop in the ocean. We would like to thank the people involved in the “10 000 tests a day” initiative for their trust and interest in our work. We hope that together, with the help of our knowledge and effort we can help save human lives and mitigate economic impacts of the current corona pandemics.

Preparation and isolation of magnetic nanoparticles for isolation of virus RNA.

Original author: M. Koneracká et al.
Photographs by: M. Koneracká et al.