Rutgers scientists have developed a lab test that can quickly and easily identify which variant of the virus causing COVID-19 has infected a person, an advance expected to greatly assist health officials tracking the disease and physicians treating infected patients. Details of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test have been published in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. The paper includes directions for how to employ so-called “molecular beacons,” a powerful technique that seeks out molecules that carry genetic information to make proteins, coinvented by one of the paper’s authors, Sanjay Tyagi, a professor of medicine at the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. To read the full story.