Thiruvananthapuram lab develops 2-hour Covid-19 test

21st April 2020
Thiruvananthapuram lab develops 2-hour Covid-19 test

Thiruvananthapuram, April 21 2020: The  Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, based  here, has developed a diagnostic kit called 'Chitra GeneLAMP-N,'   to confirm the coronavirus.
The testing kit’s detection time as 10 minutes, and the time of 'sample to result' (from RNA extraction in swab to RT-LAMP detection time) is said to take less than two hours. The tests performed at NIV Alappuzha, authorised under ICMR, show that the new testing kit has a 100 per cent accuracy A total of 30 samples can be tested in a single batch and the machines are estimated to cost Rs 250,000.
The kit was developed by Dr Anoop Thekkuveettil, a Senior Scientist of the Biomedical Technology Wing of SCIT and his team over the last three weeks.
The confirmatory diagnostic test, which detects the N Gene of SARS- COV2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP), will be one of the world’s first few if not the first of its kinds in the world., claimed Dr Asha Kishore, Director of SCIT, talking to PTI.
Sree Chitra has also developed the specific RNA extraction kits along with GeneLAMP-N test kits and testing devices. The technology  was transferred for  manufacture to Kochi-based Agappe Diagnostics Ltd.