A Huntsville genetics lab says it has a new way to do regular COVID-19 testing without painful swabs.
Kailos Genetics is launching “Assure Sentinel” as “a first of its kind workplace viral suppression program.” It already has agreements to use the product at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, where it is a resident company, and Huntingdon College in Montgomery.
The company gets its samples through saliva collection, not nasal swabs. The new method is “easy and painless,” Kailos said in a news release. The samples are pooled for analysis. “Pooling dozens of samples together has been standard in blood banking for decades,” Kailos CEO Brian Pollock said in a statement. “The Assure Sentinel program is helping to suppress COVID-19 and returning people to the workplace.”
“Safety is, and has always been, our number one priority during the pandemic, and the Assure Sentinel program is helping us continue to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees,” HudsonAlpha Director of Human Resources Julia Michaux-Watkins said.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, Huntingdon College identified access to testing as a key element to our ability to responsibly reopen our campus to our students, faculty and staff for the fall,” Huntingdon Senior Vice President Jay Dorman said. “We have been fortunate to find an Alabama-based partner to provide a reasonably priced, efficient testing option, which has been critical in successfully mitigating the spread of COVID-19 on our campus.”
Kailos Genetics is a Huntsville-based genetic research company that tests for changes and features in DNA that could signal a disease or point to possible genetic risks to children.