India’s First CRISPR Test

admin September 21, 2020 Daily Current Affairs

The Tata Group has announced that the Tata CRISPR test, developed by CSIR-IGIB ‘Feluda’ (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology)
- had received regulatory approvals from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)
- For commercial roll-out in accordance with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines.
The test has met high benchmarks, with 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting the novel coronavirus.
It uses indigenously developed CRISPR technology for the detection of the genomic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
It is the world’s first diagnostic test to deploy a specially adapted Cas9 protein to successfully detect the virus causing Covid-19.
This marks a significant achievement for the Indian scientific community, moving from R&D to a high-accuracy, scalable and reliable test in less than 100 days.
It achieves the accuracy levels of the traditional RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) tests, with quicker turnaround time, less expensive equipment, and better ease of use.
The Tata Group worked closely with CSIR-IGIB and ICMR to create a high-quality test.