Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College & Hospital (SLBSGMCH), Ner Chowk, Himachal Pradesh, today, to help tackle COVID-19 in the Himachal Pradesh region.
IIT Mandi has extended its support to set up a real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) laboratory for diagnosing Coronavirus at SLBSGMCH.
For this purpose, the institute has already provided a real-time PCR machine along with few other equipment as well as trained personnel to SLBSGMCH. This is to set up the real-time PCR reactor and data analysis, which is one of the crucial steps for diagnosis, after Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) isolation.
This sophisticated instrument will be solely used for COVID-19 diagnosis and will help in ramping up the testing process by analysing 100 samples if run for 24 hours continuously.
If required, it can be increased to the capacity of conducting up to 1000 samples per day for the detection of COVID-19. SLBSGMCH will start analysing the COVID-19 samples after getting approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Apart from this, IIT Mandi will be conducting a training session for SLBSGMCH on the real-time PCR setup and data analysis.
All the activities in the PCR lab for COVID-19 diagnosis will take place with mutual consent and each organisation will nominate one coordinator to oversee the functioning of diagnostic facilities.
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