How to get samples from Covid-19 patients to work in the laboratory: Companies meet with Granada hospitals
The Health Sciences Technological Park Foundation has organized today, April 3, 2020, a second meeting between companies and entities that will focus on the coronavirus crisis. In this quote or also known as meet upThe Biosanitary Research Institute ibs.GRANADA, the Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP), the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital (HUVN), the San Cecilio Clinical University Hospital (HUCSC), the Andalusian Public Health District will participate, as well reports Granada Salud. The presence of hospitals is key in this new meeting, since formulas are being sought to facilitate the work of the companies that are behind research and innovation projects related to this crisis in the fight against Covid-19.
Thus, at the meeting, companies and entities related to biosanitary innovation try to identify "what is the most practical way" to achieve samples -biological, analytical or imaging, among others, of patients who are infected and thus "help develop solutions." Several companies based in Granada, such as Vircell or Máster Genómica, are working on developing new detection tests, which is also one of the priorities in recent weeks. Other research groups, such as two Artificial Intelligence groups at the University of Granada, are exploring how to determine if a person is sick using X-ray images. The development of these projects requires samples from sick people that can be obtained in hospitals, hence the need to enable a communication channel that links both channels.
On the other hand, companies and entities are urged to make known their "clinical experience and data", which could help "improve projects developed with the Covid-19 ″. Laboratories and research groups have reoriented their work in recent weeks to respond to demands such as the need for more effective diagnostic tests or the ability of existing drugs to alleviate symptoms in patients, such as chloroquine, used in treatment of malaria, as explained by researcher Elena Gómez Díaz, from the López Neyra Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine. Knowing what is done with patients, what medications are given, and what results these decisions have can help develop new measures or determine whether certain treatments are (or not) effective.
The meeting will also serve to learn about the "immediate needs"The medium and long term of these companies, "to offer them the help they may need," indicates the call for the event, which highlights that "emphasis will be placed on the experience that clinicians are acquiring in the race to understand how the virus behaves."
"We need to be told how to manage obtaining positive samples," says Granada Salud. Oscar Huertas. From there - that supply of samples from sick patients - if a possible treatment is reached, it is also necessary to determine how the first steps can be taken for a clinical trial.
