Page 6 - Covid 26 July 2021

Government establishes a network of COVID-19 biorepositories
In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, while it is
of paramount importance to provide early diagnosis and
treatment to all infected individuals, it is also critical to
promote research and development for larger public
health benefits. For the development and validation of
new diagnostics, therapeutics, or vaccines, access to
different kinds of clinical samples from infected patients is
an essential requirement. Currently, there is no structured
mechanism for collecting and storing these valuable
clinical samples. So, it is important to create designated
biorepositories for collecting, storing, and maintaining
clinical samples (oropharyngeal/nasopharyngeal swabs,
bronchoalveolar lavage, sputum, blood, urine, and stool)
of COVID-19 patients. The samples will be used to
develop validated diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, etc.
The samples will also be a valuable resource for research
and development-related activities to understand
the early predictors of disease severity, the immunopathogenesis of the disease, etc. In this context, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released a document on COVID-19 biorepositories. This document lays down the brief processes and operational mechanisms for establishing COVID-19 biorepositories in the country. The objectives of this document are:
1. To establish organised and dedicated biorepositories of well-characterised clinical samples of COVID-19 patients.
2. To judiciously use these samples to promote research and development towards indigenous diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines in line with the Make in India initiative.
3. To promote Indian academia, industry and commercial entities for developing novel solutions for COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment.
4. To conduct research, to better understand COVID-19 disease in the Indian scenario.
Website link:
https://www.icmr.gov.in/cbiorn.html
IIT Mandi develops an antibacterial self-cleaning material for face
masks and PPE
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi has developed a virus-filtering, self-cleaning and antibacterial material that can be used to make face masks and other PPE equipment. This path-breaking development by Dr Amit Jaiswal, Assistant Professor, School of Basic Sciences, IIT Mandi, along with his research scholars, Mr Praveen Kumar, Mr Shounak Roy, and Ms Ankita Sarkar comes at a time when it is imperative to develop techniques to stop the repetitive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Considering the urgency of the pandemic situation and cost-effectiveness, IIT Mandi has developed a strategy to repurpose existing PPEs, especially face masks, by providing an antimicrobial coating to these protective clothing/textiles. For this, nanomaterials were used to confer antimicrobial properties to polycotton fabric. Dr Jaiswal and his team incorporated nanometre sized sheets of molybdenum disulphide, MoS2, the sharp edges and corners of
VOL. IV ISSUE 7
VIGYAN PRASAR 2
COVID-19 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EFFORTS IN INDIA