CSIR-IGIB develops FELUDA, an affordable coronavirus screen for pathogen detection:
`Feluda` has been developed by scientists from the Council of Science & Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), a low-cost coronavirus test for pathogen detection. No expensive machines will be needed.
Feluda:
♦ In the stories of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray the tool `Feluda` was named after the detective character.
♦ Debojyoti Chakraborty and Souvik Maiti created the Test. This method is supposed to be a simplified way to detect the presence of SARS-coV2 in the clinical samples.
♦ The start of the test method is similar to the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in real time, where the ribonucleic acid (RNA) is extracted and transformed into DNA.
♦ But the newly established approach varies by using a particular PCR reaction to amplify a portion of the sequence of viral nucleic acids. Following this, FnCAS9, a highly specific CRISPR, binds to the sequence which can be interpreted as a positive unit. CRISPR, FnCAS9 were developed at IGIB.
♦ The system uses fluorescent reporters for the amplification and detection of presence of viral nucleic acid.
♦ The total test time needed is less than an hour.
♦ Implementation of the system includes costly Real-Time PCR machines at specialist sites.
♦ Following positive validation by regulatory agencies, it will allow the test to be carried out in local path laboratories that do not have expensive real-time PCR machines, but simple cheap thermal blocks used for traditional PCR.
CSIR-IGIB:
CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) was established in 1977. The primary focus is on integrative biology. It aims to translate concepts developed in basic biological research to commercially viable technologies for the utilization of health care across the country. It functions under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
CCMB, IGIB implement software surveillance to track and regulate the spread of COVID-19:
The Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the Institute of Genetics and Integrated Biology (IGIB) are currently improving automated and molecular surveillance of the spread of novel coronavirus in order to understand the effects of genetics, epidemiology and disease.
Highlights:
♦ The control center will be set up at IGIB where all the labs, testing centers and hospitals can share their data by cloud sharing.
♦ The surveillance will be carried out at three stages, namely the patient`s virus, and the patient`s clinical path.
♦ Virus-level control applies to the Virus genome. CCMB plays a significant role for this, because it will include sequences of the genomes.
♦ The second part deals with the medical info, which is descriptions of the clinical samples patients testing.
♦ Third, the specifics of the clinical course will be clinical care data or data from hospitals which lead to outcomes. Some patients require ventilators while others will recover on their own.
♦ The data to be connected to the Aarogya Setu app will be used by GoI. The aim is to provide the maximum number of people with the benefits.