Palaeoscience institute partners with diagnostic firm for COVID-19 testing

The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeoscience (BSIP) here, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, has partnered with a private diagnostic firm to start testing for coronavirus from next week.

The institute is also working on 'mass screening assay' to diagnose a large population of 30-40 thousand per week.

This is for the first time that the institute is going for sample testing.

"Our work is on palaeoscience (study of geological past). This is for the first time we are going for sample testing.We have all the necessary kits for precaution and we know principles and applications for dealing with such samples. After the tie up we are all ready with corona testing from next week," In-charge, ancient DNA lab, BSIP, Dr Neeraj Rai told PTI.

BSIP and the Redcliffe team, with which the institute has partnered, is also working on a mass screening assay to diagnose a large population using a mass array technology, Dr Rai said.

"If we get approvals, which are in the pipeline, we will be to able to test 30-40 thousand samples in a week, which is the need of the hour," Dr Rai said.

About the testing costs,Co-Founder, Redcliffe Life Sciences, Ashish Dubey told PTI, "The cost is expected to be less than Rs. 1000 per sample and for a large set of population this can be even less than Rs. 700 provided 500 samples are screened together"
Redcliffe will help conduct a prescribed diagnostic test within a set time (calculated from the sample receipt) and issue a formal test report using their manpower trained at handling infectious samples, Dr Rai said,