The firms supporting the new lab include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Canon Medical, and Siemens Healthineers, all of which will contribute their know-how and technologies to the effort.
The new funding opportunities come as part of the NIH's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics program, which aims to support SARS-CoV-2 testing technologies.
The test will comprise a smartphone-powered single-use, disposable device that detects active SARS-CoV-2 infection based on the presence of viral proteins.
The winners will each get a sample set from AACC's Universal Sample Bank, which has blood samples from healthy individuals collected to help medical studies.
The research group said its test has the potential to boost limits of detection one hundredfold over ELISA platforms in testing for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
The company said that it will use the funds to build out its CLIA facility and continue developing its blood-based Alzheimer's disease test for the clinic.
The effort is receiving $1.5 billion in funding with up to $500 million set aside for a competition among researchers developing rapid testing technologies.
The multiplex assay is designed to detect both the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein from nasal swabs and patient-derived antibodies against the viral spike protein 1 from blood drops.
The total relief package totals $484 billion, including $11 billion for states, localities, territories, tribes, and employers to scale up SARS-CoV-2 testing.
MBio is developing the system for use with human host-response biomarker assays that can be used to identify gravely ill or highly contagious individuals.
