Preliminary optimisation of a simplified sample preparation method to permit direct detection of SARS-CoV-2 within saliva samples using reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP).

"Declaration of Competing Interest All reagents and equipment were purchased from a DHSC award to the University of Southampton (Grant Reference Number 2020/032). KMG has received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products, and is part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec, BenevolentAI Bio Ltd. and Danone. EH was on secondment at GeneSys Biotech Limited for the duration of this project (from The Pirbright Institute) and helped with generation of the data. LOD data was generated by CW at GeneSys Biotech Limited; all other data was generated and analysed independently of the authors from OptiSense Limited and all other authors from GeneSys Biotech Limited."

"Funding This work was funded by a Department of Health and Social Care award to the University of Southampton (Grant Reference Number 2020/032 (Feasibility study for city-wide testing using saliva based LAMP testing)). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Health and Social Care. KMG is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12011/4), the 10.13039/501100000272National Institute for Health Research (NIHR Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0515-10042) and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (IS-BRC-1215-20004)) and the 10.13039/501100000274British Heart Foundation (RG/15/17/3174). For this project, ELAH was on secondment at GeneSys Biotech Ltd, which was part funded by The Pirbright Institute Flexible Talent Mobility Account (FTMA) under BBSRC grant BB/S507945/1. The analytical testing was conducted at HHFT and at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Weybridge. APHA laboratory expertise was supported by both the Safe and Certain project APHACSKL0085 and Defra project APHANSOM0416."