Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

billiontoone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 247 posts

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#21

Post by dvdt »

supernova87a wrote: post #8

Can someone here explain in a couple of points what the idea is? While the site is overwhelmed? Edit, is the idea (for the non-expert): 1) Repurposing idle gene sequencing equipment left over from Human Genome project 2) Reducing / removing the step of having to extract the RNA of the virus as the marker 3) Making these tests / machines available widely across the country so that the delay to getting a result is mini…

1) and 2) are exactly right.

3) is almost right--these sanger sequencing instruments are already widely available across the country for research use. Here in the Bay Area, I can choose from at least 4 different Sanger sequencing services that will run 10,000 samples at $2/sample in 24 hours. For example, see: https://www.mclab.com/DNA-Sequencing-Services.html

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#23

Post by lvs »

dang wrote: post #18
lvs wrote: post #16

So, I can't get to your site, but this seems a little disingenuous as a title. You're not seemingly "unlocking" anything more than a protocol for Sanger sequencing that, if it eventually was approved and actually tested against real samples and people elsewhere adapted the protocols to use for testing, you would then... at that point... unlock a thing.

Since people seem to be reacting to the word "unlocking" in the title, I've replaced it with "working on".

Thanks. Make him explain whether the machine learning is real too, since his linked manuscript doesn't say anything about it. This is a really exploitative moment to be hyping things.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#24

Post by treis »

dang wrote: post #14
treis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Our initial data show no false-positives and no false-negatives out of all specimens assayed. Your test is perfect? Color me skeptical.

That's obviously not what he said. Please stick to the site guidelines: " Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. " " Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What's the stronger interpretation?

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#26

Post by scrollaway »

treis wrote: post #24
dang wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's obviously not what he said. Please stick to the site guidelines: " Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. " " Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What's the stronger interpretation?

They say they have not had false positives or false negatives. If that's not a lie, then that's not a lie. It does not mean the test is perfect, but it likely means the false result rate is low.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#28

Post by petertodd »

zepto wrote: post #20
dvdt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for letting me know about the site! This is a test to see if someone has a current COVID-19 infection. The antibody tests (serological) tests are also important, but since it is estimated that only ~1% of the US has previously contracted COVID-19, it will be a while before serological testing becomes useful at a population level. Our initial data show no false-positives and no false-negatives out of all specim…

Dismissing the value of serological testing seems like a self-serving move. Such tests are immediately of very high value because they allow us to understand immunity to Covid-19, and to actually validate the estimates of cases amongst those who haven’t sought treatment. These are both of huge value regardless of the percentage of the US population estimate to have previously contracted Covid-19. By all means market…

Part of the problem with serological testing is false positives. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the tests available may have false positive rates on the order of 0.5% to 2%

If only 1% are infected, and the false positive rate is 1%, it's quite hard to determine what the test result actually means. On the other hand, some places like New York City are already at 0.7% per-capita known positives, and they're not even able to test everyone with symptoms. Their true infection rate could very well be 10%, which serological testing could confirm.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#29

Post by aazaa »

dvdt wrote: post #2

I'm the co-founder and CTO at BillionToOne. I'm happy to answer any questions here. I've also posted a slightly more technical explanation of how the test works and why it can scale here: https://twitter.com/dtsao/status/1247642005510873088?s=21 Edit: Since our site seems to be overwhelmed at the moment, here's a recap: We’ve been working hard at BillionToOne on a new COVID-19 test that scales testing to everyone in…

Your company has filed a US patent application (and it appears also a PCT) on the qSanger method, and this application is reference 8 in your document.

What are your plans for licensing the technology?

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#30

Post by Eridrus »

dvdt wrote: post #2

I'm the co-founder and CTO at BillionToOne. I'm happy to answer any questions here. I've also posted a slightly more technical explanation of how the test works and why it can scale here: https://twitter.com/dtsao/status/1247642005510873088?s=21 Edit: Since our site seems to be overwhelmed at the moment, here's a recap: We’ve been working hard at BillionToOne on a new COVID-19 test that scales testing to everyone in…

Thank you for what seems to be a breakthrough with implications beyond even the current outbreak.

I had a few questions though:

How do you compare this test to the Abbott machines? Obviously that test is faster, but how does that impact what we can do with it?

For 1m/day to be sufficient, do we need contact tracing programs to be able to find everybody who needs to be tested? How hard will it be to scale these programs?

Post reply on HN