Tanya the usual volume required per sample is 300ul (some systems require more) so 1L could do lysis for just over 3000 patients 1/ https://twitter.com/tanya_mulcahy/status/1247127390565908486

#MedicalScientists have been v. innovative in developing solutions to the shortage of lots of reagents including the one that is getting media attention lysis buffer. And to field the many Qs on the process;
No. 1; Our pharma do NOT make this type of reagent in Ireland. /2

No 2. We haven’t been sitting back waiting for this to happen. We have developed back-up’ plans, as we do in every test (even before #COVID19) in summary other assays( tests) measuring the save virus but use different reagents, different analysers- basically plan B, C and D. /3

We will do the work, scale up to meet the need without any grandstanding, our citizens are much too important to us for that and all that can be done at a later date.
Hopefully the public will remember the importance of having a world class #laboratory service /12

If anyone wants to do news reels @rtenews get your information from a reliable source, #MedicalScientists being one, if you have the absolute urge to publish on aspects of laboratory testing for #COVIDー19 please consider 1st authorship for #MedicalScientists #WeAreTheTest /13

And it goes without saying that each of these ‘in-house’ reagents that were prepared were always validated using appropriate controls and methods before applying them to precious patient samples, this work was always documented without necessarily published (later). /9

Sligo IT @itsligo were the first to come on board 3 weeks ago, followed quickly by RCSI @RCSI_Irl and UCD @UCD_Conway (Cork and Limerick group this weekend). They have helped us greatly with our supply of this reagent./ 8

Despite this being a new virus #medicalscientists have expertise in virus detection and clinical interpretation, not the same but we apply similar principles. /11

But despite all this good work it must be remembered that this is ONE step in a v. lengthy process, I’m sure you will have heard at this stage. We need supply chain certainty to allow us get on with what we are good at and this is really difficult for many reasons in pandemic./10

Our laboratories have had to go to plan B and C and maybe in D to keep the analysis going for COVID-19, all this requires extensive #validation and #quality assurance at each step. /4

In the interim #medicalscientists made up the lysis buffer from first principles using variations of published protocols but due to time constraints and lack of base materials started to collaborate with colleagues in various colleges. /7