An innovative approach was born in the laboratories of the University of Ferrara to perform faster and more accurate analyzes for the identification of Sars-Cov2 genomic sequences.
The scientific project is by a third year PhD student in Molecular Medicine, Chiara Mazziotta, and was awarded by the Carlo Erba Foundation in Milan with the 'Cecilia Cioffrese - Viral Diseases' 2020-2021 award.
Doctoral student Mazziotta, with scientific tutor Professor Fernanda Martini, has developed a new protocol for the amplification of the coronavirus genome with a technique called 'Droplet Digital PCR' (ddPCR). "Compared to the methods used so far - explains Mazziotta - this new approach is more reliable and accurate in terms of identification of the Sars-CoV2 genome. Furthermore, it is faster and allows to amplify a fraction of the viral genome also useful for discriminating the variants of the virus. Thanks to the detection of a low viral load in both asymptomatic and symptomatic subjects / patients, a more rapid and adequate management of the Covid-19 disease is possible ".
(HANDLE).
