HYDERABAD: In order to grow the novel coronavirus in human cell lines thus enabling vitro testing of potential drugs and vaccines against the COVID-19, Hyderabad based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has tied up with a Bengaluru based company, Eyestem Research Private Limited.
In a media release, CCMB said that under this public-private collaboration against COVID-19, it will use Eyestem's human lung epithelial cell culture system provided as part of its Anti-Covid Screening (ACS) platform to understand the molecular and pathological characteristics of the novel coronavirus, with a view of establishing a rational basis for testing potential drugs in vitro
CCMB Director, Dr Rakesh Mishra said, "Culturing the virus outside the human host is a technological challenge that needs to be overcome. Eyestem's cell culture system expresses the ACE2 receptor and other genes that are key determinants of viral entry and replication. We hope that employing this system will allow the CCMB team led by Dr Krishnan Harshan to grow the virus predictably and thereby open up the potential for the drug screening and vaccine development strategies."
The ACS platform at Eyestem has been developed by Dr Rajarshi Pal and his team.