IIT Alumni Council ropes in CSIR-IGIB for COVID-19 patient data analysis

Mumbai, Jul 8 () The IIT Alumni Council, which is setting up the world's largest molecular diagnostic lab 'MegaLab Mumbai', on Wednesday signed an agreement with the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) to jointly conduct research on COVID-19 and patient data analysis.

The council has also handed over the world's largest imaging data of 8,500 patients from the megapolis, collected from temporary pandemic facility set up at the National Sports Club of India Dome (NSCI Dome), to CSIR-IGIB, according to a joint statement.

The CSIR-IGIB, formerly Centre for Biochemical Technology, is a constituent laboratory set up by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

This data will soon be available in de-identified form and on an open data platform that is being developed by the council, to help the CSIR-IGIB and the Indian Council of Medical Research contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The joint research will create an ecosystem for the pandemic diagnostics, therapeutics and preparedness, besides bringing about an enabling value chain with expertise, spanning digital health, artificial intelligence, molecular diagnostics, next-generation sequencing, antibody harvesting, and production of monoclonal antibodies.

CSIR-IGIB Director Anurag Agrawal said, "I look forward to seeing the world's largest and fastest molecular diagnostic line getting built with 100 per cent indigenous technology. Similar thinking would be needed to accelerate population-scale testing in rare genetic disorders, a problem that the IGIB has been addressing for over a decade,".

IIT Alumni Council President Ravi Sharma said, "This partnership is an opportunity not only to create a world-leading testing and treatment ecosystem but also to establish global data leadership. This would enable open data access to every scientist and innovator to develop testing and treatment solutions."

Late May, the Council had announced the launch of the world's largest virology lab testing centre with a capacity of conducting one crore tests. While the first phase with a capacity to carry out 10 lakh tests will be ready by the end of the month, the second and third phases spanning over the next 100 days will see the capacity being ramped up to one crore.

The IIT Alumni Council is the largest body of alumni, students and faculty from all the 23 IITs and partnering Technical Institutes of Excellence and was formed last year to carry out projects of social importance. BEN HRS