- David Alland, director of the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) at New Jersey Medical School, along with colleagues Padmapriya Padmapriya Banada and Sukalyani Banik, evaluated and validated an innovative point-of-care test developed by Cepheid to detect COVID-19 in under 45 minutes.
- The latest test to receive the FDA's emergency use authorization, developed by Abbott, uses molecular beacons technology developed over many years by researchers at PHRI. The technology provides fluorescently labeled probes that are one of a suite of technologies required to assemble the entire molecular diagnostic assay. Among the inventors are Principal Investigator Sanjay Tyagi, Salvatore Marras, and Fred Kramer, who all share a laboratory at PHRI, and David Alland.
- A new Center for COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness (CCRP2), sponsored by the Office of Research and Economic Development, was established as an institutional research hub for COVID-19 research activities and information dissemination to fight SARS CoV-2 and other emerging pathogen threats.