NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rover Labs, a
diagnostics technology leader in end-to-end saliva testing, is
providing saliva-based COVID-19 testing to approximately 50 New
York City public schools during a two-month pilot program that
began on June 1 using technology
developed by Fluidigm Corporation (Nasdaq:FLDM).
New York City public schools
have instituted mandatory random weekly testing in all reopened
school buildings to ensure safer in-person learning. Through a new
pilot program, Rover Labs is testing students and staff in
New York City public schools from
all five boroughs with a saliva-based test that is turnkey,
cost-effective, highly sensitive and seamless to implement.
A growing body of peer-reviewed research is confirming that the
accuracy of saliva-based COVID-19 testing is comparable to that of
the PCR nasopharyngeal-based (nasal swab) testing that we've become
accustomed to. A systematic review and meta-analysis published
in JAMA Internal Medicine in January
2021 stated that saliva-based tests have a similar
sensitivity and specificity and present an attractive alternative
to invasive nasal testing. Adding to this evidence, NYC Health + Hospitals participated in a large
concordance study in December 2020 in
which the Fluidigm® saliva assay compared favorably with a
gold-standard anterior nares swab test on 460 patients.
Rover Labs' non-invasive saliva-based testing service enables
scalable, simple high-volume sample collection providing a less
expensive and more comfortable experience than traditional nasal
swabs. Test recipients in a pilot program provide their saliva
samples through a simple self-collection process overseen by school
nurses. Samples from students, teachers and staff are picked up by
Rover Labs and delivered to their partner lab in Eatontown, NJ, for processing. Rover Labs'
first round of testing began on June
1 and will continue through the end of the school year and
into summer programming.
"The saliva COVID testing pilot in the NYC DOE is an important continuation of
Rover's mission to improve the comfort and convenience of testing
for both kids and adults, as well as to reduce the cost and
complexity of gathering samples," said Mark
Fasciano, Rover Labs CEO.
Using Rover CloudLIS, an integrated cloud-based lab information
system, Rover Labs handles the entire testing workflow from test
kit provisioning through test registration and automatic reporting,
allowing for fast and confidential reporting of the results.
"We are very excited to be part of the solution to getting kids
back into schools safely and giving parents and teachers peace of
mind," said Fasciano. "The ability for schools to test for COVID-19
simply and seamlessly so that infection can be identified early to
keep the student and teacher population safe is essential."
"Fluidigm is grateful for the opportunity to provide Rover Labs
with the technology to enable simple, affordable and accessible
testing that can help keep staff and students healthy," said Chris
Linthwaite, Fluidigm President and CEO. "Collaborations
with many labs and educational institutions are based upon our
test, which offers a sample type that is easier to collect than
invasive swabs, and that individuals often prefer from a comfort
perspective."
"Implementing Fluidigm technology, we have developed a
streamlined, end-to-end testing process that reduces the cost and
labor for COVID testing," said Sam
Sia, Professor, Columbia
University Department of Bioengineering and a Rover Labs
co-founder. "As the world slowly recovers from the pandemic,
ongoing testing must be fast and convenient, and not an unpleasant
distraction from everyday life."
To learn more about Rover Labs, visit www.Rover-Labs.com.
About Rover Labs
Rover Labs supplies COVID saliva
testing with Fluidigm® technology to the NY-metro area and beyond.
With a focus on school testing, back-to-work, and large,
private-group gatherings, Rover Labs provides a timely,
cost-effective end-to-end testing solution with simple and scalable
test provisioning, registration, and results reporting through its
cloud-based LIS system, Rover CloudLIS. Rover also provides
CloudLIS to third party labs and diagnostic system manufacturers.
Rover Labs has a strategic partnership with Rover Diagnostics, a
spin-out of Columbia University, which
was included in the NIH RADx program in 2020.
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SOURCE Rover Labs