Baylor School faculty members Dr. Elizabeth Forrester and Dr. Dawn Richards, who are also Ph.D. research scientists, have developed a testing protocol for COVID-19 that reduces the turnaround time for the results and began testing samples from local hospitals in their lab at Baylor on Friday, March 27.

In a partnership that was facilitated by elected officials and Baylor School officials, the research lab at Baylor was certified as a clinical lab to test local COVID-19 samples and has been leased by the county to help with efforts to identify and prevent the spread of the virus. Drs. Forrester and Richards are donating their time for the effort.

Within a week they had tested more than 170 samples and were anticipating an increase in specimens once the Hamilton Co. drive-thru testing site was fully operational. The pair were interviewed by MSNBC journalist Kasie Hunt on Sunday, March 29 and were part of a Wall Street Journal report on April 6.

The two are trained in molecular biology and in working with viruses and have the specialized equipment in their lab, which is possible thanks to a $15 million endowment from the estate of the late Katherine Weeks. The money was designated to endow the maintenance of the Weeks science building and to support the academic programs and faculty of the Baylor School science department.