Biology alumnus, Dr. Loren Wold (CAS ’97), was featured in a Marketplace Tech story on COVID-19 testing. Last summer the Biology Department announced the first ever Dr. Loren E. Wold Research Award recipients, pictured above with Dr. Wold center. This award was established by Dr. Wold, an advocate of undergraduate research and mentoring, to help undergrads in the Biology Department and BMB program participate in summer research. The award recognizes four outstanding undergraduate researchers. Now the work of Dr. Wold and his colleagues is being recognized for its impact on the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Wold is the director of biomedical research in the College of Nursing at Ohio State University and has been working with colleagues and volunteers as OSU to develop and produce new COVID-19 tests. The team at Ohio State is producing approximately 9,000 to 10,000 tests per day, according to Dr. Wold, with Governor DeWine announcing in increase to 135,000 tests per week by the end of the month. Producing so many tests in such a short period of time has come with a number of innovations. Dr. Wold notes that some of his colleagues had to develop a new kind of media to use in test kits, as the commonly used media is in such short supply. The team at OSU has started to 3-D print their own test swabs as well. The goal of these innovations and the increased production of tests is to ultimately cover the state of Ohio.
To read or listen to the full story, please follow this link. More information on the Loren E. Wold Research Awards can be found here.