Developing better, more rapid COVID-19 tests

Two years ago, in the early days of a novel coronavirus spreading methodically to almost every corner of the planet, it was something of a race. The planet’s best scientists were trying to keep up.

“When the pandemic started, one of the things that became eminently clear was that we were way too slow at diagnosing it and determining if somebody had COVID-19,” says Neal Woodbury, vice president of research and chief science and technology officer with Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise.

In the pandemic’s early months, health care in the U.S. and other nations had stumbled over the scale, speed and accuracy of testing for the virus.