E-Paper
TN to get its own whole genome sequencing lab
Tamil Nadu is set to establish a whole genomic sequencing lab so that it doesn’t have to send samples to other cities such as Bengaluru and Pune as it is doing so now
Tamil Nadu is set to establish a whole genomic sequencing lab so that it doesn’t have to send samples to other cities such as Bengaluru and Pune as it is doing so now. Health minister M Subramanian on Tuesday said that it will be set up in Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University located in Chennai to study Covid-19 variants.
After holding a review meeting on Tuesday with the institution’s senior members, including vice-chancellor Dr Sudha Seshayyan, the minister told reporters, “This is already a nationally accredited microbiology and immunology lab, and soon it will function to research on the Delta Plus variant.” The university is currently researching diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, HIV and leptospirosis. Tamil Nadu has reported nine Delta plus variant cases so far. “Having a lab of our own will give us better advantages,” he said. The state has already written to ICMR to set up the lab. The union health ministry had also written to the state to take immediate measures as the Delta plus variant is of concern due to its characteristics of being highly transmissible and stronger bonding to lung cells’ receptors. The union had also asked the state to send adequate Covid-19 positive samples to INSACOG, a consortium of designated labs for whole-genome sequencing.
Since the second wave saw a high prevalence of more transmissible variants associated with reinfection and vaccine breakthrough cases, Tamil Nadu began the exercise to identify the variants circulating in the state. The state has sent a total of 1,159 samples to Bengaluru-based lab InStem for whole-genome sequencing. Results from 772 samples showed that the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was the most commonly reported in 556 samples (72%), followed by the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant in 65 samples (8.4%). The Delta Plus variant of SARS CoV-2 was reported among Delta strains. The samples are of positive cases taken between December 2020 and May 2021 in Tamil Nadu. The National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu, has released funds to InSTEM for the consumables
