A COVID-19 Testing Leader

It was January 2020 and Professors for the Future alumnus Nam Tran, Ph.D.’08, M.S.’10, B.S.’03 and his colleagues at the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine were following their typical routine of scaling up testing platforms to accommodate the upcoming seasonal influenza and common-cold season.

As a board certified clinical chemist, it was work that Tran was accustom to doing. Tran is a clinical expert in identifying biomarkers of acute injury and infectious diseases and has years of experience leading clinical chemistry, toxicology and point-of-care testing in supporting clinical laboratory operations at UC Davis Health.

But then Tran, like much of the world, began hearing reports a mysterious, new respiratory virus in China called, SARS-CoV-2. Although not much was known about the novel coronavirus at the time, Tran was mindful of how fast viruses could spread globally. He led the UC Davis laboratory’s response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic and had experience with the 2009 novel H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

COVID-19 case comes to UC Davis Health

By late January 2020, it was clear the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, was no longer contained in China. On Feb. 26, UC Davis Health announced it had treated the nation’s first known case of community-transmitted COVID-19.

The virus’ appearance in Sacramento affirmed Tran’s belief that UC Davis Health would need an in-house COVID-19 test. At the time, the only accurate tests that were available at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. Then, on Feb. 29, the FDA announced it would allow diagnostic laboratories, such as the one led by Tran, to create their own COVID-19 tests. With that, Tran and his team got to work.

Feeling immense pressure to create an accurate and reliable test quickly, Tran and his team were soon working 16-hour days, often late into the night or early morning. Tran also pooled together a multi-disciplinary team throughout UC Davis Health and the main UC Davis campus to work on solving this problem.

“This was full mobilization of the clinical laboratory, spanning at least four laboratory specialty sections – it would not be possible without our amazing clinical lab scientists, likewise early on we also brought in our virology experts at the Centers for Immunology and Infectious Diseases to grow the virus for our test development,” Tran said.

Nam Tran, Ph.D. ’08

Professors for the Future alumnus

COVID-19 test created in 19 days

All the hard work and collaboration paid off. On March 19, UC Davis Health offered its first in-house COVID-19 test to a patient — a monumental achievement that occurred just 19 days after the first FDA announcement.

The achievement did not, however, mean the team could rest on its laurels. The system they developed could test only 20 to 40 patients a day. It was clear this would not be adequate for the growing pandemic.

“It was a huge relief to get that first one done, but we knew we would need to move it to faster and more automated system,” said Tran, who was named to the Governor Newsom’s COVID-19 task force.

Tran and the team soon developed a way to increased capacity to perform more than 1,000 COVID-19 tests per day.

COVID-19 testing continues

Since then, Tran’s pursuit of innovation to help society better understand and grapple with this global virus has only continued. He brought sequencing for Delta variant analysis to the region, he created the regions first rapid (20 minutes) test that detects both COVID-19 and the flu, he initiated the manufacturing of tens-of-thousands of COVID-19 testing tubes in Sacramento, and he co-founded a UC-owned machine learning company that was leveraged to enhance COVID-19 testing.

“When I look back at that year, I now realize, ‘wow, we did a lot,’” he said with a chuckle.

In 2021, Tran became part of a UC Davis partnership with chairman and CEO of Allegiant Travel Company and UC Davis alumnus, Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr., to develop novel rapid COVID-19 test that was proved to be 98.3% accurate for positive COVID-19 tests and 96% for negative tests, according to a study published in Nature Scientific Reports. At the time of publication, studies were underway for FDA emergency use authorization.

It is the first test for COVID-19 that pairs mass spectrometry with robotics and a robust automated machine learning platform to rapidly deliver test results—the entire process takes a total of about 20 minutes. The accuracy matches or outperforms many of the current COVID-19 screening tests.

“This test was made from the ground up. Nothing like this test ever existed. We were starting with a clean slate,” Tran said. “This technology is able to be both fast and high through put; but also with the added value of not relying on the same supply chains as well as being cheap.”

Beyond developing tests to identify the prevalence of COVID-19 in a patient, Tran and his team also have had to develop testing for some of the long-standing symptoms of the virus such as coagulation, inflammatory responses and heart-attacks. They are doing all this on top processing 15,000 samples a day for other clinical issues for non-COVID patients who visit UC Davis Health.

PFTF influences career success

In addition to all this clinical work, Tran is a professor in the department of pathology and laboratory Medicine. Tran said his time as a Professors for the Future fellow has played a large influence on his career success to date. 

“Because of PFTF, I always knew what was expected of me in academia – especially at University of California. I knew where I had to put my energy in these areas and do so efficiently,” Tran said. “It demystified what I needed to do to move up the metaphorical academic ladder. I never lost sight of that, and it’s allowed me to go from assistant professor to full professor in nine years.”

Tran’s PFTF project also had a longstanding impact on him. His project was focused on teaching biomedical engineers to be more exposed the medical side so they could be better prepared to solve problems without ongoing access to a clinician. It is now a permanent course he teaches every fall, including during the pandemic.

“PFTF gave me more exposure to teaching, education, and communication, those are really important things that helped me in my career,” he said.

"It's just the right thing to do."

Tran, whose efforts testing for COVID-19 could allow for improved early detection other diseases and pandemics in the future, said he’s committed to putting in the hours because “It’s just the right thing to do, and still fun to do.”

He added, “Just being able to see what you made and contributed to as department or health system, or as a team, that’s what motivates me.” 

Articles by Lisa Howard at UC Davis Health contributed to this story.