DELHI SCIENTISTS DEVELOP FASTER, CHEAPER COVID TESTING METHOD

NEW DELHI: Researchers from the New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) have developed a new method of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) testing that is faster, cheaper, and almost as accurate as the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, considered the gold standard of testing for the infection.

The method eliminates the need for a biosafety lab, which makes it possible for it to be used at airports and railway stations to test passengers before they board a plane or a train.

Instead of amplifying the genetic material of the SarsCoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, the technique developed by researchers from IGIB uses mass spectrometry to detect two peptides (building blocks of the viral protein).

Mass spectrometry can detect the presence and quantity of various organic and inorganic compounds by detecting the ions released by them.

“The benefit of this method is that we do not need the viral RNA to be intact after sample collection because we do not need to amplify the genetic material. This means, after collecting the swab samples we can directly put it in a detergent that breaks down the genetic material of the virus leaving it unable to infect anyone,” said Shantanu Sengupta, senior principal scientist at IGIB, and one of the corresponding authors of the paper published in the Springer Group’s Journal of Proteins and Proteomics.