Mirimus
Mirimus (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won $500,000 from XPrize for its SalivaClear COVID-19 pooled saliva testing PCR platform, and could double its prize for successfully deploying it.
Pooled testing entails combining a small volume of saliva (200 microliters) from up to 24 individual samples to create a single specimen for analysis. A diagnostic is then performed on the entire pool. If a positive test occurs, the pool is narrowed to pinpoint the positive individual(s).
“We have now increased our volume to 100,000 tests per week and are working to scale to 1 million through our partner lab network over the next few months,” said Mirimus CEO Dr. Prem Premsrirut in a news release. “SalivaClear is a highly effective, efficient and cost-effective solution to COVID-19 surveillance testing that has been successfully utilized by hundreds of schools, businesses and government organizations across the country to conduct surveillance testing of groups of individuals in order to quickly isolate COVID-19 hotspots before they can become outbreaks. Even as the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continues, robust surveillance testing remains a necessary part of any reopening strategy, especially with the recent emergence of dangerous viral variants.”