Australian scientists develop new fingerprick test that could help in Omicron fight

A new test developed by Australian scientists which only needs a fingerprick of blood could play a crucial role in telling a person when they need to get a booster shot to protect themselves against new variants like Omicron.

The Doherty Institute and Burnet Institute have teamed up to create the world-first point-of-care test which has shown signs of being “highly accurate” in measuring a person’s neutralising antibodies – which correlates to their immunity protection from serious disease in Covid-19.

The test, currently in its prototype phase, takes 20 minutes to return a result and is the first of its kind globally.

Omicron is estimated to be up to 40 times less sensitive to a person’s neutralising antibodies than the Delta strain creating new challenges in protecting people against the virus.

The Doherty Institute’s Tom Fulford said the test could help a person know when they needed a booster vaccine to increase their immunity.

“We envisage this test to be a part of a set of indications that will help to determine who may need a booster vaccine,” Dr Fulford said.

“This can also be adapted so that it can provide information about whether an individual has protective antibodies against particular variants of concern.”

Burnet Institute Deputy Director David Anderson said the test could become useful in time-critical and low-to-middle income settings where laboratory-based testing is too difficult to access.

“One of the key elements of the test is that it can work with fingerprick whole blood, which is essential if it is really going to be used at point of care,” Associate Professor Anderson said.

“Another is that we have demonstrated we can readily substitute different variants into the test.

“While we have not yet tested Omicron, this will be simple enough to incorporate in our test in place of the original strain or other variants we have tested so far.”

The institutes are currently seeking commercial partners to develop the manufacturing process and rollout the test globally.