By Arthur Gorrie
Regional Queenslander Harmony Douwes has proved that country girls can do anything, as she helps lead the world’s fight against Covid-19.
Harmony has helped develop the technology behind a new quick home Covid test, now the subject of a $300 million deal with the United States Defence Department.
She works for the Brisbane-based biotech firm Ellume, which has been engaged to ramp up manufacture of the company’s new home-based rapid testing equipment for use in what the United States government regards as an issue of national security.
She graduated from Gympie State High in 2012 with the highest possible pass, an OP1, which also helped earn her a scholarship to the University of Queensland.
She topped all her subjects, particularly science and maths, which led to her science degree, majoring in zoology, with a minor in maths.
She parlayed that into her first job, as a research assistant with Ellume, after her 2016 graduation.
Now a Senior Scientist and Junior Project Manager with the firm, she recalls working on a number of projects, especially a TB blood test, using technology which can be applied to any disease.
“TB causes the largest number of deaths of any disease in the world,“ she said at her Gympie home this week.
“This was a test which could be used in developing countries with a high burden of TB.
““It could be easily transported to outlying areas because it was easy to transport and simple to use,“ she said.
“When Covid happened we were in a good position because we’d already done a lot of work on this sort of test.
“I had been involved also in developing a ’flu test.
“So we had a test platform that was ready use and we could leverage that to really rapidly develop a Covid test, including a home Covid test, because we had done the hard yards already.
“The project I now manage is a Covid test, but it is not a home test (like the product bought by the US) and it allows quick and effective lab testing.
“It uses equipment which is simple and durable and it can process eight tests, even for different diseases, at a time.
“All the core technicalities had been developed previously for the ’flu test, so we only took a year or less to develop the Covid test.“
The Ellume contract with the US will allow increased production of the testing kits, boosting the number of tests undertaken in the US by 640,000 tests a day by the end of the year.
It allows the government distribution of 85 million kits and will finance a production facility in Maryland.
It is the first at-home test to get US Food and Drug Administration emergency approval, with the company claiming an accuracy rate of about 95 per dent,
It is designed to detect virus fragments in a nasal swab and to be performed in 15 minutes.
