Pune: SPPU to come up with COVID-testing facility with a capacity of 350 tests daily

Pune: Along with government and private labs, now the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will also have a COVID-testing facility on their campus. The university is coming up with a 'Center for Molecular Diagnostic & Research' which will enable the testing facility. This facility has been approved by the government and within two months it will be able to conduct 350 tests daily.

Dr Nitin Karmalkar, Vice-Chancellor of SPPU said, "During the coronavirus crisis, the university has done substantial work on the city as well as national level. University has helped the Pune Municipal Corporation with crucial data like where the number of cases are increasing or decreasing and where the containment zones should be demarcated."

Dr Karmalkar said, "A team of 15 professors from SPPU is working with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) scientists during the entire coronavirus outbreak period. There is a need to increase the number of tests conducted in Pune. So we are coming up with a research centre and lab to conduct COVID-tests on the university campus. The government has approved this project and within two months we would be able to conduct 350 tests daily."

"Pune university has projects going on in microbiology and biotechnology, but there were no projects on virology. So it needed a special laboratory to work on virology projects. By the time the lab is set up, our team of professors will have completed their training in IISER," Karmalkar said.