COLUMBUS — The Food and Drug Administration approved a solution created by workers at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center that will expand and speed up testing for the coronavirus, according to a report from our news partners at WBNS-TV in Columbus.
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In response to a shortage of test kit components that heath systems around the world reported, OSU developed a solution that addressed the problem.
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Ohio State said all test kits come with vials filled with a solution known as viral transport media (VTM). Researchers at Ohio State created an in-house recipe to make the VTM in less than 24 hours, the station reported.
The Wexner Medical Center also worked with faculty and staff in the university’s colleges of Engineering and Dentistry to create and 3-D print more than 50,000 swabs for the test kits to be shared with hospitals across the state.
The test kits use about 3 ml, about one tablespoon, of VTM. Ohio State has created more than 100 liters of VTM which is enough for around 30,000 test kits, according to WBNS-TV.
The university previously reported there are nearly 80 research projects underway on campus related to coronavirus.
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