India’s first CRISPR Covid-19 test, developed by the Tata Group and CSIR-IGIB, approved for use in India

News: The Tata CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) test, powered by CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology) FELUDA, received regulatory approvals from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for commercial launch.

Facts:

• FELUDA is the acronym for FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay. It is a low cost paper strip test which can detect the presence of coronavirus within an hour.
• It uses indigenously developed CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify and target the genetic material of SARS-CoV2.

Additional Information:

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)

• It is a gene editing technology. It can detect specific sequences of DNA within a gene and uses an enzyme functioning as molecular scissors to snip it.
• It is used in correcting genetic defects and treating and preventing the spread of diseases.