LexaGene Holdings Inc. announced that it has initiated a program that uses the rapid configurability of the MiQLab system to investigate novel variants of SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 is a pathogen that mutates quickly. New variants were recently identified in the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7) and South Africa (B.1.351). Both new strains appear to be about 70% more contagious, making containment that much more challenging.3 Also, some scientists are concerned that the South African strain may not be a good match for developed vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics. LexaGene is pursuing FDA EUA for COVID-19 testing using assays that are predicted to detect >99.9% of the strains circulating based on published sequences, including the UK and South African variants. Given the suspected higher rate of transmissibility of these variants, it is of clinical importance to be able to distinguish these new variants from the original strain. LexaGene's MiQLab can be easily configured to run tests for both coronavirus detection and strain identification as it is capable of screening for up to 27 genetic targets at once.