ATCC has announced it is expanding its support for the U.S. and international research and development communities to respond to the growing coronavirus pandemic.

ATCC has designed and developed three new quantitative synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA constructs for use as controls in the development and running of molecular-based detection assays. These constructs are now available and one of which, SARS-CoV-2 RNA: ORF, E, N, is compatible with WHO-approved assays as well as the CDC SARS-CoV-2 Detection Assay.

These reference materials can be used in customary BSL-2 and BSL-1 levels. 

ATCC is also rapidly expanding its collection of coronavirus standards to include SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA and a heat-inactivated preparation from a strain recently sourced from an infected patient in Washington state (2019-nCoV/USA-WA1/2020). This strain is fully sequenced (GenBank: MN985325.1) and serves as the SARS-CoV-2 reference material for the U.S.

Together with the novel synthetics, these additional reagents, which are projected to be available within the next week, will enable labs to have appropriate controls for both pre- and post-clinical extraction steps thus spanning the entire diagnostics workflow.

These new reagents expand on ATCC’s existing diverse portfolio of coronavirus research materials, which includes strains and nucleic acids that can be used for inclusivity/exclusivity and represent species known to cause disease in humans and animals.

For vaccine development, ATCC has a variety of cell lines, including Vero cell lines known to propagate SARS-CoV-2. Included in its portfolio of Vero cells are gene-edited Vero cells which have enhanced viral growth properties and cGMP Vero cells.