Inside the COVID testing Lab

The plan to establish the COVID testing centre at the Transit Campus of IISER Berhampur was not just a challenge, but a courageous decision marking a remarkable spin which later became a focal point of the state and nation. The continuous efforts by the administration and the academicians were the key to the successful implementation of a lab that changed the face of a society. The initial days of setting up of the Covid lab was crucial as it demanded effective navigation and systematic implementation of plans. This was made possible by the timely effort from the entire Covid lab team. The working strategy of different sub-teams, time slots division to manage and bring out results as quick as possible was discussed in the Part – I of this article series (read on Con-ceimento).

The present situation has dragged the entire humankind to come out of the comfort zone and currently things are uncertain for future. But fear not with the proper incorporation of scientific knowledge we can overthrow the dark envelope of these devastating times .The role of COVID testing labs across the Globe plays a pivotal role in this fight. The dramatic invasiveness of the SARS-CoV2 virus distinguishes this pandemic to be worse. Undoubtedly the detection of viral load in an individual will help not only to provide utmost care to the infected person but also to eradicate the traumatic spread to a second individual and further to the entire society. The fact that a person can be tested negative today but may turn positive the other day and vice versa sometimes dilutes the ultimate necessity of a COVID testing lab. But more than a diagnostic centre, the testing lab is a platform that provides researchers’ ample amount of resources (sample specimens) to drive in the possibilities of creating vaccines, medicines and for many effective therapeutic studies.

The quest for research drives the testing labs of our institute to consistently move ahead with the tests. The zone and colour of the district moved in resulting an aggressive path demanding the testing in high throughput and with efficient decisions from the lab. There was a time when the lab marked 450 samples reporting in a day and as the viral pandemic became intensive , the lab reported 300 plus samples in a span of 24 hours for several days. Number matters only when the output is composed with efficiency and accuracy and that is vital in these crucial days. It was the selfless and dedicated COVID lab members who took up the challenge of tackling these fearful times. As an institute of national importance it is our prime duty to incorporate scientific temperament in every Indian citizen, the lab actively promoted and explored various dimensions of bringing up scientific thoughts to sharpen our weapons in this war. The adoption of Dry-Swab method (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.31.126342v1) which infringe the laborious genetic material isolation was successfully tested. The advancement of this methodology is a major reduction in the testing time, cost-effective and ease of use. This novel protocol was tested in the lab multiple times and mirrored the inferences from the original work from CCMB testing centre. Dry-Swab can be a best-adapted testing method in the coming days which just not limit to COVID-19 testing, but for many viral gene detections.

The COVID testing centre is established with a Bio-Safety Level-II (BSL-II), having dedicated arenas with extended partitioning ensuring best level of safety. Over time, the changes in testing kits with different composition of chemicals/reagents bring out different instances and possibilities of false results. But with the proper and channelized system even minute technical errors were ruled out. In total, 6 different COVID testing kits were used successfully which traced various SARS-CoV2 novel genes providing a wonderful opportunity in the lab to understand the quality and dynamics of each testing kit having its own specific characteristics (run time, temperature and overall PCR program).One of the recent achievement from the lab is the fully automated uploading of sample data and results using computer programming and is now tested to give zero error and saving hours of human effort. The algorithm is currently in use with absolute data privacy and security which also nullifies the practical errors, is soon going to be implemented in various labs across India (read more here: https://www.iiserbpr.ac.in/content/CovidLab_automation.pdf).

The lab provided a wonderful platform to nourish the training of various members of the IISER fraternity by moulding their practical and theoretical knowledge. A molecular lab that never existed a year ago suddenly appeared and providing a remarkable opportunity to several undergrad and postgrad students in future and present; with a fact that the emotion and atmosphere inside that lab will shower life-long experience that further drives the passion towards research. Nearly 40 members had already acquired training and still continue their work. The testing facility has now become a platform to validate many novel strategies and in line to witness exciting studies from our students and scientists. The lab had completed a 25,000 sample testing so far, and the efforts will continue until the world is free from mask. There are many more exciting stories from inside the lab, hope to share on a later time.

REFERENCES:

1. Kiran et al., 2020. Improved and Simplified Diagnosis of Covid-19 using TE Extraction from Dry Swabs. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.31.126342

2. K.G Gopi, 2020. Covid19 Lab Data Entry Automation. https://www.iiserbpr.ac.in/content/

CovidLab_automation.pdf