The Institute - June 2020 - TI6

CEPHEID, COFOUNDED BY
IEEE FELLOW KURT PETERSEN
HAS A RAPID TEST FOR COVID-19

n late March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approved the emergency use of Cepheid's GeneXpert rapid
molecular diagnostic machines to test for the new coronavirus. The automated modules-5,000 of which are already
installed in U.S. health facilities plus 18,000 in other countries-
don't require a lab facility or special training to operate. What's
more, they generate accurate results in about 45 minutes.
The modules use disposable cartridges, prefilled with the
required chemicals, which are channeled around test chambers using microfluidics.
Although the cartridges had to be adapted to test for COVID-19,
the microfluidic system itself dates back to the late 1990s, when
IEEE Fellow Kurt Petersen [above], a MEMS pioneer, helped
TI-6

JUN 2020

THE INSTITUTE

found Cepheid in Sunnyvale, Calif. Cepheid went public in
2000, and Danaher acquired it in 2016.
The system was just a prototype in September 2001, when
letters containing anthrax spores began arriving at the offices
of U.S. senators and journalists. Cepheid won a set of competitions to help the U.S. Postal Service prevent anthrax from
getting into the mail system. To this day, Cepheid systems
attached to sorting machines screen most U.S. mail.
Since 2001, the company's GeneXpert has been adapted
to test for the flu, streptococcus, noroviruses, chlamydia,
tuberculosis, and MRSA.
"The technology we developed is very powerful," Petersen
says, "because you can have all different kinds of cartridges for
PHOTOGRAPH BY

Peter Adams

https://www.cepheid.com/coronavirus https://www.cepheid.com/coronavirus https://www.cepheid.com/en_US/systems https://www.danaher.com/ https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05058 https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/kurt-petersen-2019-ieee-medal-of-honor-recipient-is-mr-mems

The Institute - June 2020

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