Radx tech: A new model of translational medtech research seminar

Dr Steven Schachter is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Chief Academic Officer and Director of Neurotechnology for CIMIT (Consortium for Improving Medicine with Innovation and Technology), a non-profit national organisation that accelerates translational medical research into devices, procedures, and delivery of health care. He was Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded POCTRN Point of Care Technology Research Center in Primary Care at CIMIT from 2012-2017, and has been Principal Investigator for the POCTRN Coordinating Center for the current POCTRN cycle. He is also Principal Investigator for the Point of Care Technology Research Center in Primary Care: Blueprint Pilot Program, which focuses on early-stage neurotechnologies.

Since April 2020, Dr Schachter has managed the extramural aspects of the nearly $1.5 billion NIH program called RADx Tech (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics) to develop, commercialise, and scale-up production of accurate, rapid assays that directly detected the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with antigen and molecular tests. By December 2021, not even 20 months after its launch, RADx Tech had reached the capacity to produce 1 billion COVID-19 diagnostic tests, supported 100 companies, and attained 35 FDA Emergency Use Authorizations.

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