On Oct. 4, a new Covid-19 testing station was set up at the West Forum with the purpose of resuming NYU Abu Dhabi’s Covid-19 Screening Study that was piloted on July 5. This study is the culmination of a complex approval process, multiple research efforts and collaboration with the Department of Health, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and the Mohammed Bin Rashid University Of Medicine and Health Sciences, among other research facilities. It aims to provide a more efficient means of detecting infectious disease and keeping our community safe.

The study will screen the NYUAD community for potential asymptomatic Covid-19 infections. All members of the community residing on campus are eligible to participate. Participants are asked to visit the study booths to provide self-collected samples, once for a baseline (first visit), and then weekly or biweekly. This, however, is not an official diagnostic test, and if traces of the Covid-19 virus are detected in a given sample, the Health Center will call the patient back to provide a new nasopharyngeal swab for testing.

The samples from the screening study will be processed via an ultrasensitive detection method developed by NYUAD researchers. This same method was also employed during the pilot study in the summer and proved capable of detecting traces of the virus even when the nasal swab is painlessly inserted an inch into the nose and not all the way to the pharyngeal region, as is the case in current PCR tests. A distinguishing feature of this semester’s screening study would be that it relies exclusively on saliva samples. Saliva testing, proven to be compatible with the aforementioned detection method, poses multiple advantages, the most obvious being that it is painless. The test is also cheaper, as it does not require special collecting tubes, much easier to administer and effectively lowers the risks of exposure for healthcare workers collecting samples at the frontlines.

Dr. Youssef Idaghdour, Assistant Professor of Biology at NYUAD and co-principal investigator in the screening study, said, “It was a new disease … and there was a lot of confusing information about it … We realized that … the existing labs … don’t even know how to set up protocols for the detection of the disease … As scientists we always want to contribute, whether it is through research or education or outreach.”

Idaghdour’s research team works extensively on infectious diseases, allowing his lab to focus on improving the current golden standard detection method for Covid-19: RT-PCR. According to him, their method leverages the combined power of an “enhanced PCR procedure and nanotechnology (microfluidics, lab-in-a-chip technology).” Testing their method on both synthetic and clinical samples, they demonstrated its utility for asymptomatic individuals and individuals with low viral loads. That said, Idaghdour’s method is still in early development and currently presents substantial validity issues.

“Our research showed that there is about a twenty percent false negative rate, meaning that in every five people tested in the UAE, one is a false negative,” Idaghdour noted. “That is a huge problem… Those with a low viral load of the disease, mainly asymptomatic individuals, can test negative and go on to transmit the disease.”

Anthony Chua, Class of 2021, took part in the study after learning about it through the Student Portal and Facebook student group posts.

“Contributing to science seemed like a good thing, especially since a visit doesn't ask for much time or effort from me,” Chua noted, and added that “[he would recommend it to those] interested in replacing the nasopharyngeal swab test with a less painful one.”

“If we demonstrate the effectiveness of the study then we can eventually switch to this method and push for it,” said Idaghdour, adding that they have the capacity to ideally screen everyone in the community biweekly. With higher rates of participation, the research team can demonstrate this capability, allowing them to officially switch to this new detection method.

“This is an opportunity for us to come together as a community,” remarked Idaghdour.