Dr. Kathryn Kundrod: Developing Low-Cost, Accessible Tests with LAMP

The Bioinformatics and Beyond Podcast

Dr. Kathryn Kundrod explains how her work has focused on making quality testing available in more resource limited settings. She discusses the design decisions involved and the tradeoffs that can be made to balance the accuracy of a test against the accessibility and cost of a test. We learn about how resource constraints apply to all COVID-19 testing done in all countries of the world. We then dive into the technical details of designing a test with a technology like LAMP. She discusses further considerations that impact designing a new COVID-19 test, such as practical considerations like ease of regulatory approval and availability of reagents. We conclude by hearing about what the experience was like when Dr. Kundrod and her colleagues rolled out their newly designed test at Rice University.