The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the commercial launch of ‘Feluda‘ COVID-19 test. The test is developed by the Tata Group and CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology). This is said to be India’s first Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) coronavirus test.
A team led by Dr. Souvik Maiti and Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty, at CSIR-IGIB in Delhi, came up with this simple ‘ paper strip COVID-19 test that gives results in minutes. Moreover, these scientists named it after Satyajit Ray’s famous story character, Feluda.
The Feluda COVID-19 test mainly uses an indigenously-developed CRISPR technology for the detection of the genomic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, CRISPR prominently is a genome editing tech for the diagnosis of diseases
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Tata CRISPR test, powered by CSIR-IGIB, received regulatory approvals as per ICMR guidelines. The test meets high-quality benchmarks with 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting the novel coronavirus.
In easy words, this Tata CRISPR test achieves accuracy levels of traditional RT-PCR tests. Additionally, it has a quicker turnaround time and also uses less expensive equipment with better ease of use.
India’s first CRISPR Covid-19 test FELUDA, developed by @IGIBSocial and @TataGroup has been approved for use in India by @DCGI. Congratulations to the entire team! @PMOIndia @drharshvardhan @PrinSciAdvGoI @shekhar_mande @ICMRDELHI @AnuragAgrawalMD @Debojyo04532898
— CSIR, India (@CSIR_IND) September 19, 2020
FELUDA!
Super proud of our very own indigenous innovative #technology for detecting #Covid19, faster, efficient, scalable & affordable without compromising quality! A gene-editing technology called Crispr.@shekhar_mande @TataCompanies @kvijayraghavan https://t.co/tAizHb3pC9— Nivruti (@rnivruti) October 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/jguyr/status/1313097223404687360?s=20
FELUDA is Satyajit Say's iconic detective
His real name:Prodosh Chandra Mitter
and now 'FELUDA' a CRISPR based paper strip COVID-19 test
reportedly
Sensitivity-96%
Specificity- 98 %
report within an hour
When will it hit the market ?
Will it be the solution for rapid testing ?— Prashant Mehta (@Prasshmehta) October 5, 2020
India's new paper Covid-19 test could be a ‘game changer’
…an inexpensive paper-based test for coronavirus that could give fast results similar to a pregnancy test.
"This is a simple, precise, reliable, scalable and frugal test" https://t.co/jMLPYXiOeh @PrinSciAdvGoI
— Amit Paranjape (@aparanjape) October 5, 2020
This Paper-strip Covid-19 Test could reduce the costs of testing. While the RT-PCR (Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction) test (RT-PCR) requires machinery worth lakhs, the ‘Feluda’ test works with less expensive equipment. Therefore, this test could cost just about Rs 500, which is much less than Rs 4,500 for RT-PCR
As per The Print report, it can be used in a way similar to pregnancy test strips. Meanwhile, as per the same report, CSIR Director-General Shekhar C Mande comments that this strip will be similar to a pregnancy test strip. Moreover, the test will not require any special skills and machines to perform, as in PCR-based tests. Furthermore, this strip will just change color and use a simple pathological lab. The most important part is it will be 100 percent accurate
