INTERVIEW
Will we soon be able to forget the long queues in front of laboratories for a PCR test and the endless wait for a positive or negative response to Covid-19? For the time being, between the time of making an appointment and the result of the screening received by email, it can take several days, or even weeks in places. But the bio-tech start-up Loop Dee Science has designed a rapid detection test that can be done directly at the patient's bedside, in just 40 minutes. Stefan Gallard, its co-founder, was the guest of Europe 1, Wednesday noon, to discuss this solution.
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"Amplify the genetic code"
Based in Caen, Loop Dee Science created the LoopXplore. "It's a small box that looks like a big box of matches", describes Stefan Gallard at the microphone of Elisabeth Assayag and Emmanuel Duteil in La France bouge . He boasts "a concentrate of technology which makes it possible to amplify the genetic code and to be able to read the result".
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Concretely, "when we do molecular biology, we look for a specific target of the genetic sequence", continues the leader of the start-up. "We did molecular engineering work: work on the genetic code of the coronavirus. We extract it, isolate it and amplify it to read it. That's what this machine does."
Available "within a few weeks"
The box will be available in university hospitals "within a few weeks", advances Stefan Gallard. "There is a scientific study that needs to take place, we have done clinical work to scientifically validate our tests and we are now moving into the production phase. We are just starting the commercialization phase."
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While France aims to be able to perform one million tests per week in December, this unit could therefore in theory help reduce waiting times and streamline screenings throughout the country.