FELUDA Test For Covid-19

• 21 Sep 2020

• It is an accurate and low-cost paper-based test strip to detect Covid-19 in less than 30 minutes.
• It has been approved for commercial launch by the Drugs Controller General of India.
• It is developed by a research team led by Debojyoti Chakraborty and SouvikMaiti of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Tata Group.
• Feluda uses indigenously developed CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify and target the genetic material of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
• The Cas9 protein is barcoded to interact with the SARS-CoV2 sequence in the patient’s genetic material. The Cas9-SARS-CoV2 complex is then put on the paper strip, where using two lines (one control, one test) makes it possible to determine if the test sample was infected with Covid-19.
• FELUDA technically is an acronym and stands for FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay. And yes, it has been named after the famous fictional Bengali sleuth, Feluda, who popularly appeared in novels by author Satyajit Ray.