General view outside GlaxoSmithKline headquarters in Brentford, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, London. LONDON: GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health unit has tied up with Mammoth Biosciences to develop a test that uses a technology commonly used in gene editing to detect novel coronavirus infections, the California-based startup said on Wednesday .
The test will use Mammoth's CRISPR-based platform to identify the presence of viral RNA strands through a nasal swab and deliver results in less than 20 minutes, Mammoth said. Mammoth, co-founded by early gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna, was the first to develop a CRISPR platform as a disease detection system.The tie-up marks a push into coronavirus diagnostics for Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline. Pfizer Inc holds a more than 30 per cent stake in GSK Consumer Healthcare.