The State of Karnataka has identified Four medical Colleges to set up regional laboratories for genome sequencing as part of its surveillance strategy to monitor the genomic variations in the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
What experts said.? The Karnataka government has expressed interest and started an initiative to build capacity for genome sequencing in its medical colleges. Four medical colleges have been identified — Bowring Institute in Bengaluru, Mysuru Medical College, Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences and Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences. These are all established SARS-CoV-2 labs where they are getting the infrastructure ready. The State Cabinet has approved the investment in these places and very soon the equipment will be purchased.
“In the state genome committee, we have good molecular biology bio-informatics experts and clinicians. We have met formally and have decided to start a formal training programme”
“The technique itself is not rocket science. But the output generated from sequencing is humongous. Several gigabytes of data and one has to analyse it. This requires bio-informatics training and skill in calling the variants based on the sequencing. We are going to start such kind of training shortly.”
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“We want to fast-track these four labs by August 1. We are confident that we will handhold them and start genome sequencing.”
– India Today
