Corona virus: What are these two Indian scientists doing?

Two Indian scientists have claimed to have developed a kit for testing corona virus. The new invention has the backing of the government and will soon be launched with the participation of renowned company Tata. There are new news every day about corona virus testing. Sometimes there is controversy over the number of Corona tests in India, sometimes about the price of the test kit. But now, if all goes well and Indian scientists succeed in their endeavor, this new invention will really cause a stir. CSIR operates under the government's Ministry of Science and Industry. This new kit has been developed by two scientists. The Government of India has given its approval for further development of this test kit and there is talk of making it in collaboration with reputed company Tata.
A press note issued by the Central Government of India clearly states that this is a fully Indian test kit which will help in conducting one test at a time. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Shekhar Mande, Director General of CSIR, said: "This is a paper-based test with a solution. After the RNA of the corona virus is removed, it is placed on a piece of paper and a special band is seen to determine if the patient has the corona virus.  This paper strip test kit has been developed by two scientists from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Debjyoti Chakraborty and Sowak Mehta are both from West Bengal and work together. Speaking to the BBC, Sook Maiti said there would be two bands on the strip. The first band is the control band, changing the color of this band will mean that the strip has been used correctly. The second band is the test band. Changing the color of this band will mean that the patient is positive for corona virus. If no band is seen, the patient will be considered corona negative. The important thing is that this test is neither a rapid test nor an RTPCR test. This is a third type of RNA based test. Like a famous character in Satyajit Ray's films, he was named Feluda. However, the name is just a coincidence because the technique used to detect corona in this test is called 'Finca Editor Linked Uniform Detection It' and this philoda is an acronym for it. According to Dr. Shekhar Mande, “Similar paper-based kits have been worked on in other countries of the world. But our work is a little different from other countries. Because we are using another enzyme in this test. He says that the technique used in this test is called CRISPR-CAS9-technique. The rest of the countries are using CAS9 to AS1 to CA1S in this test. "Such a test has been done at the University of Berkeley in the United States, but they are not yet using it for corona testing." According to Dr. Mande, the kit could be used in India by the end of this month. Is. He further said that like RTPCR used in India, the results of this test are also very accurate. Indian scientists had been working on the test since January 28. "We had it ready around April 4," said Sook Mati. But to make this kit massive, we needed the participation of a large company. Then tenders were issued and the rest of the paperwork was done which took a month. But won't a rapid test kit be needed after this paper test kit? "This test kit is no better or worse," says Dr. Mande. In fact, doing RTPCR takes a little longer and costs more. Paper cuts take less time and cost less.  It will take one to two hours for the test results to come through this kit. Explaining the cost, Dr Mande said that if the kit was made on a large scale, the cost of a test would be between Rs 300 and Rs 500. The government says India will be able to conduct 500,000 tests a day in the next two months. RTPCR tests are currently being conducted in India and it is said that the result will come in six hours but those who have been tested say that they had to wait for two days. "It's not like that," says Sook Maiti. First you have to understand the disease. It is spread by a virus. Therefore, great care must be taken in the process of sampling the disease. Then extracting RNA from the sample is a complex process. This test can only be done in a lab and special machines are used for it so it can only be done by medical staff. He said that for this test also seawab will be taken from the nose and mouth which will be collected without transport material which is characteristic that it does not produce new virus. This test can be done in any pathology lab in the country.