South Asia’s largest genomics lab unveiled

South Asia’s largest and advanced genomics laboratory was unveiled on Thursday in the city, according to Nucleome Informatics. The laboratory will carry out the latest third-generation sequencing and play a critical role in fighting the pandemic by sequencing 5,000 Covid-19 genomes and 500 human genomes, it said.

The facility can also play a role in increasing India’s potential in agriculture, animal husbandry, and personalised and precision medicine, the company said.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh along with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan inaugurated the state-ofthe-art laboratory at a formal ceremony that was held online.

Rajnath Singh said genomics is the sunrise sector of the 21st century. Next generation sequencing can bring a revolution in biological sciences and unprecedented progress to society.

“In view of climate change and Covid’s impact on people, genome sequencing can increase productivity and help healthcare – Covid genome sequencing is trying to find out that part of the virus’s DNA that does not change, which will contribute to vaccine development,” he said.

Chauhan said India was committed to doubling farmer incomes, which requires an increase in productivity, reducing input costs and crop losses. Agrigenomics can help on these fronts and will become important and useful for addressing challenges faced by Indian agriculture.

Nucleome, according to the MD and CEO of the company, has contributed to agrigenomics, animal husbandry and wildlife conservation. The company will soon provide a suite of predictive genomics products in healthcare to analyse the data of RNA sequencing, that will improve understanding and uptake of personalized and precision medicine in India.

THE LABORATORY will carry out the latest thirdgeneration sequencing and play a critical role in fighting the pandemic by sequencing 5,000 Covid-19 genomes and 500 human genomes.