Biotech nonprofit in downtown Tacoma gears up to help with coronavirus testing
A nonprofit in downtown Tacoma is gearing up to take on some of the burden from health systems in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
RAIN Incubator launched in 2017 with the goal of fostering jobs and businesses by training students in the field of biotechnology.
Now, it’s using four labs in its 9,200-square-foot facility to develop assays, or an analysis to determine the presence of a substance — in this case, COVID-19.
“The objective of these labs is really to be to work on infectious disease, all the technologies you’d need to support any kind of outbreak,” said David Hirschberg, founder of RAIN Incubator. “...These laboratories, there’s nothing in this area, really south of Seattle or north of Portland, that can work on the kinds of projects that we’re working on.”
The goal is to help health systems like MultiCare and CHI Franciscan working on the front lines by standing up alternate ways of testing.
“When a health system becomes overburdened with testing or their labs are overwhelmed, we can provide that really solid foundational backup,” said Jenna McKee-Johnson, head of science operations for RAIN.
More than 3,500 people have been tested for coronavirus in Pierce County, with 186 testing positive and the rest testing negative as of Wednesday, according to Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. Statewide, 3,207 people have tested positive for the virus, with 43,173 testing negative as of Thursday, according to state Department of Health.
Many others are waiting for results or want to be tested.
Gov. Jay Inslee said in a press conference Thursday that there is a need for more testing and that states across the nation are in a “mad scramble” for additional supplies.
In Pierce County, testing is expanding.
RAIN is developing ways to test.
Hirschberg estimates that RAIN has the capacity to run about 100 tests a day. RAIN is not taking samples directly from the public, so don’t show up on its doorstep, he added.
Hirschberg has a background in neuroimmunology, the study of the nervous and immune systems, and has worked nearly 20 years in the area of infectious disease. He’s also a faculty member in the School of Engineering and School of Interdisciplinary Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma.
His last lab was at the University of Columbia with Ian Lipkin, the director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, and he helped develop technology to support the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak (SARS) of 2003 and the H1N1 outbreak, commonly known as the Swine Flu, in 2009. Lipkin said earlier this week that he has COVID-19.
Much of the work that RAIN already does with respiratory diseases translates easily to the coronavirus pandemic, Hirschberg said.
“It’s very easy for us to pivot to a disease,” he said.
RAIN Incubator is currently developing tests that can potentially transition to a clinic or hospital.
Stanley Langevin, head of scientific development for RAIN, started to pay attention to the virus at the beginning of the outbreak.
“As the outbreak started progressing, and once we realized the transmission capacity of this virus and that it was a high transmissible virus, then we knew it was going to be more of a worldwide problem rather than a local problem,” Langevin said.
RAIN can “not only develop tools for the medical community but also to better understand the transmission and the outbreak that’s occurring,” Langevin said.
Tenley Cederstrand is on the board of directors for RAIN and said the company is uniquely situated to be able to quickly respond to the virus by already knowing how to develop assays and work with samples.
Cederstrand added students who train there have returned from college and showed up to help in the effort.
“I’m just so proud of everything that we’ve done because now we’re ready,” Cederstrand said. “We didn’t know we needed to be ready, but here we are.”
