CSIR's IGIB, Tata Sons sign MoU for knowhow of COVID-19 diagnostic kit

The CSIR's Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and Tata Sons have signed an agreement for licensing of the knowhow of a COVID-19 diagnostic kit which can be used for testing on ground by the month-end, a statement said on Tuesday.  

In another development, CSIR's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad has tied up with a Bengaluru-based company, Eyestem Research Private Limited, to grow novel coronavirus in human cell lines, which will enable in vitro testing of potential drugs and vaccines against COVID-19.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier organisation under the Ministry of Science and Technology, has 38 institutes and laboratories under it. Most of them are currently involved in developing aids linked to battling COVID-19.

The IGIB has developed FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay (FELUDA) for low cost and rapid diagnosis of COVID-19.

"The licence shall include transfer of the knowledge for scaling up the knowhow in the form of a kit that can be deployed for COVID-19 testing on ground as early as end of May," the statement added. 

A completely indigenous scientific invention, FELUDA for COVID-19 has been designed for mitigating the ongoing COVID-19 situation and cater to mass testing. 

Its main advantages are its affordability, relative ease of use and non-dependency on expensive RT-PCR machines. 

Commenting on the agreement, Banmali Agrawala, President - Infrastructure and Defence & Aerospace, Tata Sons said, "This innovative CRISPR 'Feluda' test uses cutting edge CRISPR technology for detection of genomic sequence of novel coronavirus. 

"It uses a test protocol that is simple to administer and easy to interpret enabling results to be made available to the medical fraternity in relatively lesser time, as compared to other test protocols.  We believe that CRISPR is futuristic technology that can also be configured for detection of multiple other pathogens in the future." 

With regards to collaboration between CCMB and Eyestem, the research team will use the latter's human lung epithelial cell culture system provided as part of its Anti-COVID Screening (ACS) platform to understand the molecular and pathological characteristics of the novel coronavirus.

This will help in establishing a rational basis for testing potential drugs in vitro, CCMB scientists said.

"Culturing the virus outside the human host is a technological challenge that needs to be overcome. Eyestem's cell culture system expresses the ACE2 receptor and other genes that are key determinants of viral entry and replication. 

"We hope that employing this system will allow the CCMB team led by Dr Krishnan Harshan to grow the virus predictably and thereby open up the potential for the drug screening and vaccine development strategies," said Dr. Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB.