In the last year, a small vial that people fill to a line with saliva has become a widespread weapon in the fight to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last April, when the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was spreading rapidly, partly because testing resources were scarce, Rutgers scientists introduced the game-changing innovation. Since then, more than six million Rutgers saliva tests have been performed. “The pioneering test has saved health care workers from unnecessary exposure to infected patients – the prevailing method then was to collect nose or throat swabs – and provided a high level of accuracy and sensitivity that is still the gold standard for coronavirus testing,” said Jay A. Tischfield, founder and CEO of RUCDR Infinite Biologics (now Infinity BiologiX LLC, or IBX, a privately owned company), Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Chair in Genetics and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick’s School of Arts and Sciences, and executive director of the Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey. To read the full story.