WACO, TX — Baylor University announced it has opened a new on-site COVID-19 testing lab and research facility to streamline the extensive coronavirus testing of its faculty, staff and students.
The facility is in partnership with My Labs Direct, a CLIA-certified, COLA accredited diagnostic lab that offers several FDA-approved tests.
The multi-million dollar lab is one of the largest testing labs owned by a university with no medical school affiliation.
The new partnership creates a high-throughput molecular PCR lab at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative that allows the operation of at least three on-campus testing sites. This allows the conduction of up to 150,000 diagnostic tests from January to May.
Additional capacity for processing non-Baylor, community tests, allows the lab to process up to 8,000 more tests a day with most results available in 24 hours.
Along with providing extensive COVID-19 testing, the lab's molecular PCR platform will allow Baylor to become a Research1/Tier 1 university by providing robust and high-demand testing capabilities.
With the new facility, Baylor will have the ability to test 100% of the student body each week.