In Memoriam: Tribute

‘A SENSE OF PURPOSE’: “I have never felt so much stress or pressure in my life,” Brooks said shortly before his death, “but you have a sense of purpose.” (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)

In the early days of COVID-19, tests were limited, and lines were long. Andrew Brooks ’00M (PhD) developed a testing system that helped millions expedite their results in a safe and effective manner.

By creating a test that used saliva to detect antibodies to the virus, Brooks established an alternative to the standard nasal swab test, one that had the added benefit of protecting essential workers from exposure to the virus by eliminating the need for them to be present when fluid was gathered.

“It completely mitigates the risk of contracting the disease while you’re getting a test,” Brooks told the Scientist in July 2020. “You don’t have to be in someone’s face like you do for a nasopharyngeal swab.”

The Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency approval of the test in April 2020 and expanded marketing for in-home use a month later.

Brooks, a research professor at Rutgers University, died in January at age 51. More than four million people have used his test, and it remains a reliable manner of determining whether a person has COVID-19.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called Brooks “one of our state’s unsung heroes, who undoubtedly saved lives.”

Brooks graduated from Cornell University with plans to become a veterinarian. Following a summer internship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, he became interested in the study of human disease and enrolled at Rochester, where he earned a doctorate in microbiology and immunology in 2000.

He spent the next four years working at the Medical Center as the director of its core facilities before moving to Rutgers to serve as director of the Bionomics Research and Technology Center, a partnership between Rutgers and several neighboring institutions. In 2009, he joined the Rutgers-owned Cell and DNA Repository, where he rose to chief operating officer and expanded the company from a few dozen employees to 250, forging relationships with nearly every major pharmaceutical company.

Brooks used his background in molecular genetics to design the saliva test. Brooks’s ability to ramp up the operation impressed his friend, Rutgers geneticist Jay Tischfield. “I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and I’ve met all kinds of people,” he told the New York Times. “But Andy, he was a force of nature.”

Brooks admitted to sometimes working 22 hours a day and told the Scientist, “As a professional, I have never felt so much stress or pressure in my life, but you have a sense of purpose. I hope we never see anything like it in our lifetime again.”

—Jim Mandelaro