Clemson University has begun to utilize and expand its rapid response COVID-19 saliva testing to the Clemson University community on campus. As of now, the on campus CLIA lab, operated by Clemson University graduate students and supervised by professors of bioengineering, is capable of administering and getting results on upwards of 1,000 tests per day. "The advantages of saliva based testing is No. 1 everyone can spit," said Clemson University Professor of Bioengineering Delphine Dean. "So its very easy to collect the sample and we dont need trained nurses sticking a very uncomfortable swab up your nose and tickling your brain, and its still very accurate."Originally only offered to athletes, specific staff, and members of the band due to capacity limits, the saliva test is now being administered at random to members of the Clemson University community. "Our strategy really employs finding cases before they are spread around the community," said CLIA Lab Supervisor Rachel Ham. "So we are randomly sampling groups of students and employees weekly so we can have an accurate representation of how many coronavirus cases are currently in our community."The tests are administered alongside the traditional PCR COVID-19 test at Littlejohn Coliseum. The patients simply spit into a test tube, and seal it. The tube is then delivered to the CLIA Lab on the bottom floor of Jordan Hall on Clemson's campus, where results are made available 3-4 hours after the tubes first enter the lab. "With saliva you can just directly bring saliva into the lab and test it without having to do anything else so it can actually turn out a result much quicker cause youre cutting out a lot of the processing steps," said Ham. Eventually, Clemson University wants to begin ramping up capacity for saliva testing by adding more equipment to the lab. The goal is to begin processing 5,000 on-campus tests a day, as well as offering routine saliva testing to the greater Clemson community. "Were hoping to have 13 robots running every day and texts to operate the system about 16 hours a day so then we can do 5,000 samples and result them out with 24 hour results," said Ham. "We're hoping with more affordable and rapid testing we can also help screen people so that they feel better and more secure about what's going on in their communities," said Dean.

Clemson University has begun to utilize and expand its rapid response COVID-19 saliva testing to the Clemson University community on campus.

As of now, the on campus CLIA lab, operated by Clemson University graduate students and supervised by professors of bioengineering, is capable of administering and getting results on upwards of 1,000 tests per day.

"The advantages of saliva based testing is No. 1 everyone can spit," said Clemson University Professor of Bioengineering Delphine Dean. "So its very easy to collect the sample and we dont need trained nurses sticking a very uncomfortable swab up your nose and tickling your brain, and its still very accurate."

Originally only offered to athletes, specific staff, and members of the band due to capacity limits, the saliva test is now being administered at random to members of the Clemson University community.

"Our strategy really employs finding cases before they are spread around the community," said CLIA Lab Supervisor Rachel Ham. "So we are randomly sampling groups of students and employees weekly so we can have an accurate representation of how many coronavirus cases are currently in our community."

The tests are administered alongside the traditional PCR COVID-19 test at Littlejohn Coliseum. The patients simply spit into a test tube, and seal it. The tube is then delivered to the CLIA Lab on the bottom floor of Jordan Hall on Clemson's campus, where results are made available 3-4 hours after the tubes first enter the lab.

"With saliva you can just directly bring saliva into the lab and test it without having to do anything else so it can actually turn out a result much quicker cause youre cutting out a lot of the processing steps," said Ham.

Eventually, Clemson University wants to begin ramping up capacity for saliva testing by adding more equipment to the lab. The goal is to begin processing 5,000 on-campus tests a day, as well as offering routine saliva testing to the greater Clemson community.

"Were hoping to have 13 robots running every day and texts to operate the system about 16 hours a day so then we can do 5,000 samples and result them out with 24 hour results," said Ham.

"We're hoping with more affordable and rapid testing we can also help screen people so that they feel better and more secure about what's going on in their communities," said Dean.

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COVID-19 saliva testing expanding on Clemson University campus - WYFF4 Greenville