Science vs. COVID-19: How laboratories helped save lives

Abstract

In 2020, during the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency, a major effort was undertaken to accelerate molecular diagnosis in a tertiary-level hospital in the state of Tabasco (COVID Hospital). Therefore, it was essential to implement a molecular biology laboratory staffed with qualified and trained personnel in both research and clinical practice to provide accurate and timely diagnoses and thereby expedite the treatment of patients affected by this disease. Obtaining precise and reliable results through the standardization of diagnostics assays was our main objective, and this indirectly represented our first approach to research as a working group within a molecular biology laboratory in times of uncertainty.