The Mobile Suitcase Lab Consortium aims to tackle disease outbreak investigation and pathogen detection at the point-of-care setting, directly in the field. The Mobile Suitcase Lab team has been established in 16 countries, strenghtening international collaboration and capacity building on site, for a variety of pathogens.
The Project
The RRML system consists of a fully portable and rapidly deployable mobile suitcase lab and a glovebox for safe pathogen handling. With this system, molecular technologies can be performed in the field, contributing directly on site to the monitoring, notification and supporting outbreak investigations.
- Diagnostic accuracy determination of point of need assays
Determining the diagnostic accuracy of point of need assays. -
International collaboration
Building cross border collaboration involving countries from Europe, Asia and Africa. -
Capacity building
Building capacity for safe pathogen handling and molecular diagnostics in the field. -
Suitcase lab implementation
Implementation of the suitcase lab for rapid detection of various pathogens.
Rapid nucleic acid extraction
A rapid nucleic acid extraction technology is incorporated into the RRML system to allow the use of fast and accurate RNA and DNA for downstream applications. A called "Reverse Purification" (RP, SwiftX or SpeedXtract) essentially inverses the common purification approach of standard lengthy DNA/RNA purification approaches. The total run time is 15-20 minutes including bead beating, heat lysis and magnetic bead inhibitors binding steps.
Nanpore Technologies
RNA and DNA sequencing directly for the following syndromic targets (Gastrointestinal disease panel, Respiratory syndromic panel, Influenza testing after H and N genes amplification, vector screening (Mosquito, ticks)), Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) bacteria. Oxford Nanopore Technologies has developed the rapid and accurate sequencing technology MinION. The many advantages of this technology include: real-time sequencing, scalability and portability, affordability and non-capital expenditure, simple and rapid/or automated library preparation, long/short length of DNA/RNA (>100 kb) reads. Real-time processing of generated reads makes this technology highly promising for different clinical applications such as in-situ phylogenetic and AMR analysis. The total run time is between 2-8 hours including reverse transcription in case of RNA targets, library preparation and metagenomic sequencing and offline BLAST for data analysis.
Isothermal amplification assay
The consortium has been developing isothermal amplification assays since 2015, termed as recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay and recombinase aided amplification (RAA) assay. It is widely regarded as a promising alternative technology to real-time PCR for field use as it provides results faster, amplifies nucleic acid at a constant lower temperature, and is accomplished with less expensive as well as simpler equipment.
- The size of the suitcase is 62+49+30 cm, which is easy to carry, transport and ship. A glove box will be used to inactivate the samples to avoid contamination of the environment and keep the health care worker safe.
- Power source from solar panel with power pack.
- Easy to be implemented in low resource settings.
- Cold chain independence as reagents can be kept at 38-40°C ambient temperature for months without any effect on the assay performance.
- A tight waste container allowing autoclaving or incinerating waste to avoid contamination of the environment.
- Rapid time to result around 20 minutes including the extraction procedure.
The team
Uganda
- Dr. Julius Boniface Okuni, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity
Makerere University
Germany
- Dr. Ahmed Abd El Wahed, Lead coordinator
Leipzig University - Prof. Dr. Uwe Truyen, Head of data management
Leipzig University - Prof. Dr. Manfred Weidmann, Institute of Microbiology & Virology
Brandenburg Medical School
France
- Dr. Anavaj Sakuntabhai, Functional Genetics of Infectious Diseases Unit
Institut Pasteur Paris
Ghana
- Dr. Michael Frimpong, Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine
KCCR
Ethiopia
- Andargachew Mulu
Armauer Hansen Research Institute
Senegal
- Dr. Dia Ndongo
Institut Pasteur de Dakar - Dr Jean-Michel Heraud
Institut Pasteur de Dakar
Madagascar
- Dr. Philippe Dussart
Institut Pasteur de Madagascar
Nigeria
- Prof. Olusegun George Ademowo
University of Ibadan
DR Congo
- Dr. Sheila Makiala, Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale du Zaire
INRB
Sudan
- Dr. Kamal Eltom
University of Khartoum
Egypt
- Prof. Dr. Mohamed A. Shalaby
Bangladesh
- Dr. Dinesh Mondal, Prakash Ghosh
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research
India
- Prof. Mitali Chatterjee
Nepal
-
Dr Narayan Raj Bhattarai
B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
Sri Lanka
- Aresha Manamperi, Dr. Shalindra Ranasinghe
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Publications & News
Check out some of our previous joint publications, news and recently published articles around our projects.
Lessons from the field
A multi-country phase 2 study to evaluate the suitcase lab for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in seven Sub-Saharan African countries: Lessons from the field
Yellow Fever Virus assay
Rapid Molecular Assays for the Detection of Yellow Fever Virus in Low-Resource Settings
Read More
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever assay
Development of Mobile Laboratory for Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Detection in Africa
Read More
SARS-COV-2 assay
Suitcase Lab for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Based on Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Assay
Read More
Dengue assay
Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Assay for Rapid Diagnostics of Dengue Infection
Read more
Ebola assay
Development and deployment of a rapid recombinase polymerase amplification Ebola virus detection assay in Guinea in 2015
read more
Mycobacterium ulcerans assay
Rapid detection of Mycobacterium ulcerans with isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification assay
read more
Chikungunya assay
A Field-Deployable Reverse Transcription Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Assay for Rapid Detection of the Chikungunya Virus
read more
Pan-rickettsial assay
Development of a pan-rickettsial molecular diagnostic test based on recombinase polymerase amplification assay
read more
Consortium Partners
Cairo University
Armauer Hansen Research Institute
icddr,b
IPGMER
University of Kelaniya
B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
