The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Wells Fargo have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for development of a peptide-based ELISA test for the detection of Covid-19 antibodies.

ELISA, short for serological enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, determines whether or not a person possesses antibodies for Covid-19 in the blood. The test results can help the medical fraternity fight the disease in many ways; a significant way would be the identification of individuals with antibodies who can donate their blood as part of an experimental treatment of infected patients.

Wells Fargo International Solutions Private Limited through their philanthropic partner, United Way of Bengaluru (UWBe), has joined hands with IIT Delhi in this fight against coronavirus where Wells Fargo will fund the project while UWBe will facilitate its implementation.

The IIT Delhi research team will be working on the peptide-based ELISA test project from its idea incubation to implementation stage. The proof of concept is expected by end of 2020, and the kits could be in market by March 2021.

According to Anurag S Rathore, Dean, Corporate Relations & Professor, Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Delhi, testing for Covid-19 continues to be a bottleneck at present with options that are available in the market offering limited accessibility and affordability.

As a result, the said project - a collaboration between IIT Delhi and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune - has the potential of making a meaningful difference to this situation by enabling affordable, home-based testing. "This research aims at developing a peptide-based, ELISA-based diagnostic, serological assay against Covid-19. We also aim to create an economical, commercial process for manufacturing the antigens used in ELISA and home-based diagnostic kits to offer an effective, quick, robust and affordable diagnostic solution for the Covid-19 outbreak," Rathore added.

According to V Ramgopal Rao, director of IIT Delhi, the institute has also developed an extremely low-cost Covid-19, probe free RT-PCR test kit, which has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), making IIT Delhi the first academic institute to have obtained ICMR approval for a real-time PCR-based diagnostic assay.

"Non-exclusive license to scale up production and go to market with this indigenously developed kit has already started. This current ELISA based test kit will further add to the capabilities of the nation. IIT Delhi incubated start-ups have also supplied over a million PPEs to the nation in just the last few weeks," said Rao.