Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India

DBT-inStem makes video on ‘simple pooling’ method for COVID-19 testing

The DBT’s Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (DBT-inStem) and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) are working hand in hand with the State Government of Karnataka to test for COVID-19 from April, 2020. The two institutions entered into a partnership with the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) in late May to augment their testing efforts. This collaboration aims to develop new and innovative testing methodologies that will speed up the testing process to maximize the number of samples tested in an efficient manner, in addition to providing free-of-cost testing to a section of people. As part of this engagement, an instructional video was prepared to demonstrate the use of the technique of ‘simple pooling’ in testing, which can minimize costs and maximize the number of tests. In locations where there is low prevalence of infection and asymptomatic cases and consequently most of the samples test negative, the ‘simple pooling’ strategy reduces time for COVID-19 testing and also saves reagents and resources. The technique involves random pooling of five samples each from a cohort of samples followed by RNA isolation and RT-PCR. If the pooled tubes show negative results for COVID-19 infection by RT-PCR, all the samples corresponding to the pooled tubes are reported as ‘negative’. However, if any pooled tube tested ‘positive’ for the infection, the five samples which were part of the tube are re-aliquoted and RT-PCR is performed on individual samples to identify the positive samples among them.
Contact Info: Amrita Tripathy (tripathya@instem.res.in)

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DBT-CDFD tests over 8,500 COVID-19 samples in Telangana

The DBT’s Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) Hyderabad, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) for a joint project on genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 sequence in Indian patients. 4 The Hyderabad-based premier scientific institution, which is involved in COVID-19 testing for samples from Telangana, has also so far tested over 8,500 samples. It had started testing on COVID-19 samples on 18th April 2020 after due approval from DBT and Indian Council of Medical Research. It was nominated by the Office of Director, Medical Education, Government of Telangana along with CSIR-CCMB and ESIC as a centre for pooling of samples from selected districts of Telangana with less than 2% prevalence of COVID-19 positive cases. Subsequent to an advisory issued by ICMR on 2nd April 2020, notifying that it has no objection to initiation of COVID-19 testing in laboratories operating under the DBT, CDFD had reorganised the infrastructure to create a designated COVID-19 testing laboratory, procured testing kits and personal protective equipment, and trained the manpower. Senior scientists Dr Ashwin Dalal, Dr Murali Bashyam Dr Rashna Bhandari, and Dr Harinarayanan are supervising and providing leadership to the task with support from the staff and students. Volunteers were trained at CSIR-CCMB and Osmania Medical College Koti, Hyderabad to conduct RNA preparation and RT-PCR analysis of samples received from different regions of Telangana. It has, among other things, drawn-up detailed standard operating procedures for the COVID-19 testing facility set up at its campus. The document has been prepared based on inputs from different recommendations by the World Health Organisation, United State’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the handbook prepared by the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India for COVID-19 testing in research laboratories. It covers all aspects beginning from how the security guard of the Institute must receive the vehicle carrying samples at the entrance of the building to how the samples will be analysed and a report sent to the office of the district medical and health officer from where the specific sample had come. It also gives clear protocol for how the biohazardous waste produced in the process should be handled and disposed of, how to sanitise the work and how to protect those engaged in the analysis from getting exposed to the virus.
Contact Info: Varsha (scom@cdfd.org.in)

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DBT-IBSD-JNIMS COVID-19 testing laboratory gets ICMR nod

Indian Council of Medical research (ICMR), New Delhi has given nod to the COVID-19 testing laboratory of the DBT’s Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) at Imphal to start COVID-19 testing. The IBSD-JNIMS centre, which was accorded with essential approvals by DBT to facilitate management of COVID-19, is now fully functional. ICMR approved the laboratory on 11th July 2020 for testing of COVID-19 samples. The laboratory is all set to undertake independent testing as and when the samples are shared by the Government of Manipur. The coordinators for this laboratory are Dr Nanaocha Sharma and Dr S Indira Devi, Scientists from IBSD Imphal. They are being assisted by all scientists, volunteer research associates and scholars of the institute.
Contact Info: Prof. Pulok Kumar Mukherjee, Director (director.ibsd@nic.in)

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DBT-ILS establishes in-vitro culture facility for coronavirus

The DBT’s Bhubaneswar-based Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) has established an in-vitro culture facility for coronavirus. The cultures are from patient sources using vero cells. Seventeen virus cultures have been established from swab samples with varying virus loads. Dr Soma Chattopadhyay and Dr Gulam Syed at the Institute are taking the lead in establishing and maintaining these culture units. This measure will be of great importance for COVID-related research in the country. In addition, it will aid the industry for appropriate testing and validation of various antiviral products thereby contributing to diagnostics, pathological intervention, as well as management of the disease. This facility is in addition to a biorepository facility at ILS, which is aimed at collecting and storing clinical samples for furthering research and development related to coronavirus. ILS is the fourth lab to set up such an in-vitro culture facility in India. Contact Info: Dr Soma Chattopadhyay (soma@ils.res.in); Dr Gulam Syed (gulamsyed@ils.res. in); Dr Ajay Parida (director@ils.res.in)

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DBT-NIBMG helps beef up COVID-19 Diagnostics facilities in West Bengal

The DBT’s Kolkata-based National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (DBT-NIBMG) has extended its support to the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER) and its associated Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) Hospital in the city to beef up COVID-19 diagnostics facilities in the state. DBT-NIBMG deputed a team of volunteers in the SDLD and VRDL laboratories of IPGMER where they were involved in 5 hands-on viral RNA isolation and real-time PCR. They worked at COVID-19 testing labs at IPGMER for a few weeks for continuous periods of 5-6 hours every day wearing PPE kits. They assisted in performing COVID-19 tests and also trained the in-house staff at the hospital. To date, they have processed more than 2,500 patient samples. In addition to the IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, volunteers from DBT-NIBMG are visiting other district hospitals in West Bengal to help set up COVID-19 testing labs.
Contact Info: Dr Souvik Mukherjee, sm2@nibmg.ac.in

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DBT’s NCCS tests over 10000 samples for COVID-19 in 10 weeks

The DBT’s Pune-based institute, the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) began testing samples for SARS-CoV-2 on 25th April, 2020 to facilitate the ongoing COVID-19 surveillance. Speeding up efforts further, DBT-NCCS tested 5000 more samples in just a month, and crossed a major milestone by completing over 10000 tests in 10 weeks. This was made possible only by the tireless, diligent and persistent efforts of several scientists and technical and other staff, who have been working long hours, seven days a week. It was approved as a diagnostics facility by the DBT, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Maharashtra State Government. Extensive and speedy preparations were made by this government research institution, including repurposing some of its laboratories to serve as a testing centre, procurement of supplies like PPE and kits, formulating and validating a standard operating procedure (SOP), getting technical and scientific staff trained at ICMRNIV for COVID-related biosafety measures and sample testing, registering the facility with the appropriate authorities, and conducting mock testing. Initially, fewer samples were sent to this Centre from within the Pune district of Maharashtra. However, with Maharashtra being the worst affected state in India, a large number of samples are required to be tested every day. Therefore, the Centre experienced a surge in the numbers of samples received in early May and started receiving many samples from other districts of Maharashtra as well. Undaunted by this task, the team at the Centre accelerated and doubled its efforts, frequently testing over 200 samples per day. Within less than a month and a half, this centre tested its first 5000 samples.

Furthermore, NCCS has also provided guidance and assistance to other research organizations, such as IISER-Pune and ARI to set up COVID-19 testing facilities on their respective campuses. A short video shared on the NCCS social media and website offers a glimpse into the activities of the diagnostics team. Updates are also posted on the website and social media of DBTNCCS, to keep the public abreast of the activities of this testing centre. COVID-19 tests being performed at NCCS facility 6 The timely and much-needed support provided by ICMR-NIV, the Armed Forces Medical College, the B. J. Medical college in Pune, and the Directorate of Medical Education and Research in Mumbai have been invaluable in successfully initiating and implementing the activities at NCCS. The financial requirements were primarily met through the intramural funds of NCCS from the Government of India and partially supported by Lupin Ltd and Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. The Director of NCCS, Dr Manoj Kumar Bhat, is thankful to the scientific staff, technical staff and their families for their constant support in NCCS’s contribution towards this national cause.
Contact Info: Jyoti Rao, jyoti@nccs.res.in

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Students from DBT Star Colleges shine at ‘Science Quiz - CORONA'

Living in the shadows of the COVID-19, confined to their homes, has been especially daunting for the younger generation. The plethora of information and misinformation that has been flooding the media has further added to the problem. To help address both these issues simultaneously, the ‘Manav - Human Atlas Initiative’ team launched an online science quiz series, “Science Quiz - djksuk!’”, soon after the national lockdown was announced. ‘Manav’ is a project undertaken by the Department of Biotechnology’s National Centre for Cell Science (DBT-NCCS) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER-Pune) and Persistent Systems. The weekly quiz series provided science enthusiasts with an engaging and fun activity that concomitantly helped raise awareness about COVID-19. The quiz aimed at nurturing scientific inquisitiveness especially among students and to disseminate correct scientific information from trusted sources like advisories released by the WHO, Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Government of India, the CDC, USA, and published scientific literature. 7 Links were provided in the quiz to encourage the participants to use these credible resources to learn more about the disease, even as they answered the questions. This quiz thus served as a common platform to assess as well as raise general awareness about COVID-19. It also gave students, especially graduates, post-graduates and PhD scholars, a glimpse into how science is used to address problems relevant to the society. The quiz received an overwhelming response, with the first quiz itself having attracted participants from twenty-two Indian states. Over a thousand students from academic institutions across India, including forty-two DBT-Star Colleges, participated in this series. DBT-Star Colleges are those supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, under its `Star College’ scheme. This scheme was initiated by the DBT in 2008 to support colleges and universities offering undergraduate education to improve science teaching across the country. Twenty rural colleges and ninety-six colleges from urban areas have been supported by the DBT under the scheme. Colleges from various parts of India have also been benefiting from other initiatives of the ‘Manav’ project. These include workshops on “How to read scientific literature”, which have been conducted at various educational institutions in the past. Webinars are currently being used to deliver this training, to cater to the requests being received from various colleges. Another webinar series in progress covers diverse aspects of data science and its applications in various disciplines, from astronomy to biology and public health. The ‘Manav’ initiative, exemplary of a public-private partnership, is funded by the Department of Biotechnology and Persistent Systems. It aims to annotate the extensive data available in the scientific literature related to the human body, to serve as a proof-of-concept for the eventual goal of creating a virtual human atlas. The project involves upskilling students by training them to comprehend and extract relevant information from scientific literature using a digital annotation tool. Students and researchers interested in participating in the project and webinars can learn more from the project’s website (https://manav.gov.in/) and social media: Twitter (Manav Human Atlas; @ManavAtlas) & Facebook (MANAV Human Atlas). The Rajya Sabha TV has also featured this initiative in Gyaan Vigyaan (https://youtu.be/Ule08azR1ww) & Science Monitor (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=IMgTw6rXTGQ).
Contact Info: Jyoti Rao (jyoti@nccs.res.in)

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A potential solution for monitoring severity of COVID-19 patients

Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various sectors including healthcare. Innovators are already using AI to deliver better health-related facilities for the masses through Apps. AI is marching forward in the medical field. A start-up Predible Health Pvt. Ltd has come up with an innovation called Lung IQ. This innovation is a holistic AI-based application for the diagnosis and monitoring of respiratory conditions. The solution enables early detection of lung cancer, characterization of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and monitoring of interstitial lung diseases. This innovation has been developed by using large proprietary datasets with customized algorithms for detection, qualification and diagnosis. It is compatible with all kinds of CT 8 scanners. It can help radiologists detect and quantify findings better in daily practice. It is also available as a joint solution with teleradiology for an end-to-end reading. The DBT’s public sector undertaking Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (DBT-BIRAC) is supporting the innovation. It is a potential solution for monitoring the severity of COVID-19 patients. It can help radiologists detect, quantify and communicate COVID-19 findings from Lung CT images. The findings of COVID-19 are very similar to that of other infectious and inflammatory diseases and this ready-to-use product can be helpful in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Contact Info: Dr Shirshendu Mukherjee; Dr Hafsa Ahmad; Ms Ginny Bansal (mdpmubmgf@birac.nic.in, nbm9@birac.nic.in, pmubmgf6@birac.nic.in)

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