New Saliva Coronavirus Test Could Be 'Game Changer' For IL, US

CHAMPAIGN, IL — The University of Illinois received emergency authorization Wednesday to begin using its rapid, saliva-based coronavirus test, which could have “potentially game-changing implications” for testing in Illinois and across the U.S., Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

The University of Illinois’ saliva-based test is “less expensive, faster” and uses less raw material to produce than traditional testing, Pritzker said. He touted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization as “some of the best news that we’ve had since this pandemic began.”

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Tim Killeen, president of the University of Illinois System, said the rapid tests developed by the university’s researchers can be produced “at costs that allow and permit large-scale surveillance testing.

“That combination is a key to curbing the virus, allowing isolation early enough to limit the spread of the infection,” Killeen said, adding the test can also identify people who have the virus but are not showing symptoms.

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The test requires people to drool into a test tube that is then heated and tested. The saliva sample can be tested without opening the tube, which is then heated for another 30 minutes to deactivate the coronavirus detected in any samples, officials said.

Traditional tests, such as nasal or throat swabs, are too slow, too expensive and have “too many supply-chain bottlenecks” that make fast and frequent testing nearly impossible, according to Martin Burke, a University of Illinois chemistry professor who helped design the saliva-based test.

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By using the new saliva-based test, the University of Illinois is capable of testing up to 20,000 people per day, Burke said. Employees and graduate students were tested throughout July, during which the university’s positivity rate dropped from 1.5 percent to below 0.2 percent, Burke said.

The FDA’s emergency use authorization means the university can “turbocharge” its efforts to share its technology with other universities, as well as public K-12 schools and other institutions in Illinois, Killeen said. The University of Illinois has also created a team that is working to share the “groundbreaking” technology throughout the U.S., he said.

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Robert Jones, chancellor of the university’s Urbana campus, lavished praise on the many scientists, researchers and others involved in the project, who worked 24/7 to create the test.

“I can only describe their collective effort as heroic and, I might also add, amazing,” Jones said.

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