Noisy Pooled PCR for Virus Testing

Junan Zhu; Kristina Rivera; Dror Baron

Motivation. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a prevalent diagnostic tool for infectious diseases, like coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). RT-PCR is a labor intensive technical procedure that requires numerous trained laboratory personnel to analyze one patient sample [1] . Briefly, ribonucleic acid (RNA) is isolated from a patient's respiratory tract and purified for reverse transcription, a process where the RNA template is turned into complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA). cDNA, along with specific viral primers, is loaded into a machine, where cDNA is amplified and annealed to the target sequence. While extending through each PCR cycle, a reporter dye is cleaved or broken from a probe to amplify fluorescence intensity and reveal a positive sample.