IIT-B Prof Gets Nod to Launch New, Quicker, Less Costly COVID Test

A COVID-19 testing method, created by IIT Bombay professor Manoj Gopalkrishnan, has received regulatory approval for its launch.

(Image: IIT Bombay, altered by The Quint)

A COVID-19 testing method, created by IIT Bombay professor Manoj Gopalkrishnan, has received regulatory approval for its launch. The Drug Controller General (DCGI) has cleared it for commercial use as a non-regulated medical device and it has, further, been registered with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.

This new method is called Tapestry and is being brought out by Bengaluru-based tech startup Algorithm Biologics.

Tapestry is expected to help scale up testing for Coronavirus infection for half the present-cost and in one-tenth of the time.

According to PTI, Tapestry is affordable and can be used frequently owing to a single round quantitative pooling algorithm with the gold-standard RT-PCR test.

MORE ABOUT TAPESTRY

Gopalkrishnan, was quoted by PTI, as informing:

• Tapestry has has been under development since last March.

• Tapestry has tied up with two labs for the testing -- Delhi-based LabAssure and Bengaluru-based Dhitiomics for commercial use and talks are underway with many other labs for a nationwide launch.

• Tapestry lowers testing time to four hours, which is just a tenth of the present time taken by the traditional RT-PCR tests.

• The cost is under 50 per cent of the lowest such test at around Rs 250.

• Tapestry has undergone sampling tests on over 8,000 people since last July.

• Clinical trials were carried out at Tata Memorial Centre from August, 2020.

• Field trials were held on the students of the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad from February 2021.

• Tapestry was invented at the IIT-Bombay.

• It has also been validated by Harvard Medical School.

MORE ABOUT MANOJ GOPALKRISHNAN

According to PTI, Manoj Gopalkrishnan has studied electrical engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He also has a PhD from the University of Southern California and has been teaching at the IIT-Bombay since 2008.

(With inputs from PTI.)