Our COVID-19 Testing Service
The staff at Complement Genomics, based in Lanchester, County Durham, are passionate about helping to suppress the coronavirus in our community and helping to get us all back to a semblance of normality. We have been making a difference to local asymptomatic frontline workers in GP surgeries, pharmacies, care homes and hospices in the local area and have so far delivered hundreds of tests, free of charge.
The company has invested substantially to provide this service, with a new virus testing laboratory which has been equipped with the latest equipment and facilities.
Dr Neil Sullivan and Ms Louise Allcroft, the owners of the company are determined to help the community stay safe and get back on its feet. Dr Sullivan said: “We nearly all have either vulnerabilities or are protecting someone vulnerable; we are so pleased to be able to make a contribution which will support the community.”
We hope to give people confidence to go to work and reassure people that they are not infectious or if they are infectious, to refer them to PHE and the NHS and make sure they are quickly able to follow the UK Government’s self isolation advice.
We provide antigen screening for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-QPCR). RT-QPCR is an amplification technique where a unique primer is used to target the viral genes obtained from samples of throat swabs. The presence of Covid-19 is confirmed by fluorescence using a passive dye on the amplified genetic material. This is the antigen test that can tell if you are infected or have been recently infected.