BENGALURU: Bengaluru and seven other cities will soon have the world’s ‘Feluda’ Covid tests whose results come out in about an hour. Apollo Hospital and Tata Medical and Diagnostics (Tata MD) expect to offer the diagnostic test at their laboratories in a phased manner in eight cities starting with New Delhi in the first week of December.
The eight cities include Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune. “Since this is a new technology and requires training, the technical teams of Tata MD and Apollo would be conducting training for technicians and clinicians. The training is already underway and after completion, the roll out will be done in a phased manner across the eight locations including Bengaluru,” said a spokesperson from Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited.
The test kit, marketed as Tata MD CHECK, uses the Feluda test, which is named after the Bengali fictional detective Feluda created by filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray. The paper strip test has an image-based result read out. It requires standard laboratory equipment and small batches of tests can be conducted. It gives out results in about 50 minutes.
Feluda is an acronym for FNCas9 Editor-Limited Uniform Detection Assay which was developed by the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) and is based on CRISPR Cas9, a genome editing technology.
The process of collecting patient samples, RNA extraction and amplification remain same in TataMD CHECK as in other viral detection tests. However, the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology ensures quicker results due to a more agile process and AI-based automated result detection methodology.
Dr Sangita Reddy, joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals said, “The addition of Tata MD CHECK as part of the testing arsenal will be a boost to the ongoing efforts that the country has been waging against this pandemic.”