• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds




Oak Ridge lab accredited to analyze air, surfaces for COVID-19 virus

Posted at 12:36 pm August 3, 2020
By Kay Brookshire Leave a Comment

Edward Sobek, president of Assured Bio Labs LLC reviews COVID-19 analysis systems before the processing of samples. (Submitted photo)

An environmental microbiology laboratory in Oak Ridge is the first in the United States to receive accreditation to analyze air and surfaces for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19, a press release said.

Assured Bio Labs LLC was granted accreditation for testing environmental air and surfaces for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, by the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s Laboratory Accreditation Program, the press release said. AIHA announced the accreditation in a tweet on June 25.

As businesses bring employees back to work, COVID-19 data for touch points and air is essential to protect workers and the public, the press release said. Accreditation ensures the quality of laboratory analysis.

“Since March, we have been running samples for local municipalities and for New York City essential businesses in the financial district,” said Edward A. Sobek, president of Assured Bio Labs LLC. In April, the lab began providing COVID-19 surface and air testing for health care facilities in the Northeast as they converted COVID-19 patient rooms into standard rooms.

“We were detecting COVID in the air and surfaces both inside and outside patient rooms,” Sobek said. “We also recently started testing long-term care facilities to provide management with data needed to protect our most vulnerable group of Americans.”

Assured Bio’s website recently added COVID counts from its positive air and surface samples, the press release said.

When asked his thoughts on controlling the spread of COVID-19 in buildings, Sobek said: “Engineering solutions focused on air circulation, coupled with knowledge of viral loads in the air and on surfaces, are required to confront that problem. Stagnant air plus COVID is a significant risk to occupants.”

Advertisement

Sobek said his company’s technology counts the virus concentration in a sample.

“Other labs only report positive or negative results,” he said. “Our professional clients require viral counts to implement the proper control measures. Quantification also reduces false negative and false positive reporting.”

Assured Bio Labs’ technology includes WhisperCare, a continuous air monitoring system the size of a Rubik’s cube that tests indoor air for viruses, mold, and bacteria using DNA and RNA analysis. The M-TRAP, a patented air sampling cassette developed for rapid capture and analysis of airborne microbes including viruses, is used with WhisperCare for air sampling for COVID-19, the press release said.

“We are currently using WhisperCare in firehouses to quickly identify the presence of COVID-19 and prevent widespread infection of crucial first responders,” Sobek said.

Sobek, a microbiologist with more than 20 years of laboratory and field experience, invented the microbial detection technology that he branded as M-TRAP.

The scientist and inventor opened the lab in Oak Ridge in 2005. In 2016, he earned a master’s of business administration from the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business, where he developed and tested WhisperCare because of hospital requests for a quiet air monitoring system for patient rooms. His pilot study put WhisperCare in 26 pediatric oncology rooms, monitoring air for molds, viruses, and bacteria that could affect patient health.

An interest in science—and mushrooms—in elementary school in Pennsylvania put Sobek on the path to microbiology, the press release said. He wrote his first research paper on mushrooms in the fifth grade, looking up the scientific names for a variety of fungi. Besides hunting mushrooms as a child, an activity he still enjoys, he brought home his curiosity about the natural world.

“My mom could tell you stories about finding 25 toads in her bathtub one day,” Sobek said. He focused on fungal diseases of plants in graduate school, getting a master’s degree in plant pathology from Iowa State University. Between his master’s and doctorate, Sobek worked on a biocontrol project to shut down gene expression of a toxin produced by a fungus that grows on cotton in New Orleans. He concentrated on molds as he completed his doctorate at Texas Tech University.

Edward Sobek views masks as essential in protecting people from the spread of COVID-19. (Submitted photo)

When he started the Oak Ridge lab, Sobek said he had a choice of whether to innovate in microscopic and culture techniques or in the new DNA techniques for microbiology identification purposes. He chose the DNA route, which positioned the lab for its analysis of COVID-19 in air and surface samples. The lab’s experience includes analyzing for mold, influenza, and Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaire’s disease, among other microorganisms.

“COVID-19 hit my radar in late December when reports of a SARS-like virus was suspected of causing viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China,” Sobek wrote in an online blog. He became concerned about a possible pandemic when the Centers for Disease Control began screening for symptoms at three U.S. international airports.

“As the virus spread across Europe and here in the U.S., the Assured Bio team huddled and came up with a game plan to develop an environmental test for SARS-CoV-2,” Sobek said. “I believe we were the first environmental lab to get started,” noting that clinical labs were doing the same.

Assured Bio Labs first had to track down a sample of the COVID-19 virus, purchasing a small sample from the government to use in calibrating and testing its systems before offering analysis to customers.

Like the influenza virus, the genetic material of the COVID-19 virus is RNA, rather than DNA, which is relatively easy to analyze, Sobek said. He describes RNA as “a wimpy nucleic acid” and explained that it must be converted to DNA for analysis. A process called RT-PCR (Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction), which acts like a molecular photocopy machine, converts the RNA to DNA, allowing the lab’s scientists to detect and quantify the COVID-19 virus, Sobek explained.

The AIHA Laboratory Accreditation Program tweet in June congratulated Assured Bio Labs on being the first accredited lab to have the RT-PCR field of testing for analysis of the COVID-19 virus and related viruses.

The lab provides collection kits for COVID-19 analysis that includes swabs for touch points such as light switches, handrails, doorknobs, and elevator buttons. The swabs, as well as M-TRAP cassettes with air samples, must be placed in sealed bags in specialized coolers for overnight shipping to protect the virus’s fragile RNA. Besides its COVID-19 Environmental Testing Program, Assured Bio Labs developed a Pre-Post Cleaning Efficacy Test to verify that cleaning surfaces has removed the virus.

For more information, contact Assured Bio Labs toll-free at (866) 546-1727 or at [email protected]. The lab’s website is https://www.assuredbio.com. Assured Bio Labs LLC has a 5,000-square-foot laboratory in Oak Ridge and serves U.S. and international customers.

This press release and photos were submitted by Kay Brookshire.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

You can contact John Huotari, owner and publisher of Oak Ridge Today, at (865) 951-9692 or [email protected]

Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. This is a free story. Thank you to our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. You can see what we cover here.


Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

Copyright 2021 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Filed Under: Business, COVID-19, Front Page News, Health, Health, Oak Ridge, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: accreditation, AIHA, American Industrial Hygiene Association, Assured Bio Labs, COVID-19, Edward Sobek, SARS-CoV-2, surface and air testing

Advertisements

Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Most of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require at least four hours to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

More Business News

ORUD announces new president, general manager

Jeff Patterson ORUD has announced its new president and general manager, Jeff Patterson. Patterson has been an employee of ORUD for a long time, the natural gas provider said in a press release Wednesday. The … [Read More...]

Natural gas rates will rise, expected to drop when prices decline

Natural gas rates will increase for Oak Ridge Utility District customers because of weather-related price increases and higher transportation costs. Rates are expected to decrease when weather-related spikes … [Read More...]

Horizon-Center-Motorsports-Track-6-Feb-11-2020

Planning Commission to discuss district that would allow motorsports park

Part of the site where a test track and research facility or motorsports park could be built on the back side of Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge is pictured above on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (File photo by John … [Read More...]

Council to discuss fatal police shooting, Gateway Project

Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge of a proposed sign along South Illinois Avenue/Pellissippi Parkway (State Route 62) The Oak Ridge City Council this evening will discuss a fatal police shooting in August and this … [Read More...]

TVA Clinch River Site

For members: TVA could test new nuclear reactors in Oak Ridge

The Clinch River Site in west Oak Ridge is pictured above. The road running from bottom to top on the right (east) side of the Clinch River connects to Bear Creek Road in southwest Oak Ridge. Highway 58 is off to the top … [Read More...]

More Business

Recent Posts

  • Basketball: Lady Wildcats win district championship, defeat Farragut
  • ORUD announces new president, general manager
  • REAC/TS receives U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award
  • TVA conducting maintenance at Bull Run
  • Basketball: Girls, boys play for district championships
  • Natural gas rates will rise, expected to drop when prices decline
  • Lady Wildcats play in district semifinal game Friday night
  • Planning Commission to discuss district that would allow motorsports park
  • City has second public meeting on new entrance sign
  • Council to discuss fatal police shooting, Gateway Project

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2021 Oak Ridge Today