One Lakh Genome, DNA Sequencing Done For COVID-19 So Far In India

New Delhi, Nov 12 (TNA) One lakh Genome and DNA sequencing has been done for COVID-19 so far by the Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) and 5 COVID19 Biorepositories with 57,000 samples were made available to academia and industry for R&D and Product development, union minister of state (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh informed on Friday.

The Minister was presiding over a high level meeting to review the current status of COVID-19 research, development of vaccines and other protocols as well as the contribution made in this direction by each of the Autonomous Institutions of the Department of Biotechnology located in different parts of the country.

Head of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting & Diagnostics, (CDFD) Hyderabad said that INSACOG (Indian SARS CoV-2 Genomics) Consortium with a chain of 38 laboratories focused on genomic surveillance of SARS CoV-2. CDFD, Hyderabad is a key institution of INSACOG network and has carried out genome sequencing of more than 5,000 genomes. It was also one of the first institutes in the country to carry out research on Delta and Delta Plus variants.

Singh also announced that “A Vaccine Testing and Research Facility will come up at the second campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) and this center will also have a BSL 3 facility which is capable of handling airborne viruses like Covid-19. This facility will be the first of its kind in South India.”