Look Ma No Coronavirus! by Mitchell Kriegman
Novelist Being Audrey Hepburn, Things I Can’t Explain. Creator Clarissa Explains it All and more. Writer for The New Yorker, LARB, National Lampoon, and Saturday Night Live
CREST is a CRISPR Hope in the Testing Crisis
W
ith the United States and the world on the verge of reopening from the global shutdown, there has never been a greater need for effective and reliable COVID-19 testing. While the current methods all have their advantages and drawbacks, they are hampered by shortages, expense, and the high-level expertise of technology required to administer these tests. Meet CREST (Cas13-based, Rugged, Equitable, Scalable Testing), a startling new COVID test based on a CRISPR gene editing technology from an interdisciplinary microbiology team at our University of California Santa Barbara. In the short timeline of one month the CREST team has created a game-changing new test that offers hope for effective scalable inexpensive testing which is immune from the shortages that all the other current tests have been facing.
Behind this breakthrough is a team of scientists who pulled together this innovation while dealing with the challenges of the stay-at-home order, including virologist Carolina Arias, and her molecular biologist husband and fellow team member Diego Acosta-Alvear. Together they have continued to teach their courses at UCSB and conducted the development of this test remotely, breaking nano-barriers that even Ant-Man would shrink from, while dealing with an even greater undertaking – tutoring two rambunctious young preschool daughters – and all while working at home. There’s nothing like having all your lives and roles collide at once. CREST is now in the early stages of verification, including a local prevalence study with Cottage Hospital Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons. When fully vetted
CREST represents a mobile, highly sensitive and efficient breakthrough. The deadly litany of COVID testing missteps are well known. Having opted out of the World Health Organization protocol, the CDC’s own test was so contaminated that purified water came up positive for the coronavirus. This debacle was followed by over-hyped supplies, chronic insufficient availabilities to hospitals, and shortages of everything from swabs to reagents to processing labs. No one wants to say it out loud, but the United States is in a testing crisis, short and simple. Scientists the world over are in a race to develop new modalities of testing – from surveillance iPhone apps, smart thermometers, to community sewage testing. Meanwhile the FDA has been issuing emergency use authorizations on tests without traditional vetting, grasping at anything that can punc-
Virologist Carolina Arias and her husband Molecular Biologist Diego Acosta-Alvear and their two daughters (photo by Liz Fourie)
ture the unreality of reopening the economy without actual infection data to provide the public a sense of security as America develops a sustainable way to live with the coronavirus. In Santa Barbara, we are fortunate that social distancing seems to have helped. We also have some of the most brilliant minds in the world working right here at Cottage Hospital and at UCSB. Virologist Carolina Arias moved
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ABOUT US
Groundwater Sustainability
Established in late-2018, the Montecito Groundwater Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency is charged with ensuring ongoing groundwater supply for the basin users. It is our job to prevent undesirable results such as: • Chronic lowering of groundwater levels and supply • Reduction in groundwater storage • Seawater intrusion • Water quality degradation • Land subsidence • Depletions of interconnected surface water
We’ve got a big job to do, and, with your help, we’ll be successful.
We welcome public involvement and have formed advisory committees. The Communications and Engagement Plan available on our web site explains ways to participate and stay informed.
California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) recognized that groundwater provides a significant portion of our state’s water supply, and those resources are most effectively managed at the local level.
FUNDING
Montecito Groundwater Basin supplies public and private wells with water for residential, commercial and agricultural needs—we all benefit from this important water supply. As a “medium priority” basin, compliance with SGMA is mandatory, and we need to take action. Available data suggests that groundwater levels are low following the most recent and worst drought in our region’s history.
805.324.4207
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www.montecitogsa.com
While Montecito GSA has secured state grants and funding, it’s not enough. We’re proposing a fee for parcels overlying the basin. It will help fund the development of the plan that’s required to ensure the health of the Montecito Groundwater Basin. More information is available on our website, and in a mailed notice arriving in mailboxes in mid-May. If you have questions or would like to get involved in the process, please contact our offices through the channels listed below. info@montecitogsa.com
7 – 14 May 2020
