From the start, efforts to combat the coronavirus have suffered from a lack of available tests.
Recently, TGen North, the infectious disease branch of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, announced a partnership to help address shortfalls among underserved and vulnerable populations.
TGen is using the antiseptic cleanroom facilities of fellow Flagstaff company Poba Medical to produce and ship a projected 10,000 test kits per month.
That's a small fraction of the tens of thousands of daily tests experts say the state needs. But director David Engelthaler said they're sent where they'll have the "greatest impact possible."
"Jails and shelters and long-term care facilities and maternity clinics and working with a number of the tribal communities across the state, working with places like inpatient psychiatric centers," he said.
TGen has also helped build a statewide map of the virus's genome.
Poba Medical specializes in manufacturing catheters and thermoplastic balloons like those used to widen blocked blood vessels. Its 20,000-square-foot facility shares the same industrial park near the Flagstaff airport as TGen North.
