Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi said on Friday that it was starting research to develop a home-based COVID-19 testing kit that will identify if there are antibodies in the blood sample. The institute said that it has signed an MoU with Wells Fargo, which would financially support its initiative to develop a home-based COVID-19 testing kit
Explaining the research, the institute said it was for the development of a “peptide-based ELISA test for the detection of COVID-19 antibodies”. ELISA is short for serological enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that determines whether a person possesses antibodies for COVID-19 in the blood.
It said that such a test can help the medical fraternity fight the disease in many ways through identification of individuals with antibodies who can donate their blood as part of an experimental treatment of infected patients.
V. Ramgopal Rao, Director of IIT-Delhi, said that the research team will be working on this project from its idea incubation to implementation stage and that the concept’s proof is expected by the end of 2020, and the kits could be in market by March 2021. Anurag S. Rathore, professor, Chemical Engineering Department of IIT-Delhi said that testing for COVID-19 continues to be a bottleneck at present as options that are available in the market offer limited accessibility and affordability.
“This project, a collaboration between IIT-Delhi and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune, has the potential of making a meaningful difference to this situation by enabling affordable, home-based testing.”
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