NIST SARS-CoV-2 Synthetic Gene Fragments

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have produced synthetic gene fragments from SARS-CoV-2. Shipped in vials with a data sheet listing the concentration of fragments in the solution, the RNA fragments can be used to measure the sensitivity of tests for the coronavirus. They can also use the synthetic RNA to develop more sensitive tests or new kinds of tests, NIST said. Each solution contains about 1 million copies per microliter. NIST is releasing the synthetic RNA as a research grade test material while it expects to further develop it as a standard reference material. The material is free to researchers, test manufacturers, and testing labs. Technical information and instructions for requesting the material are available here.