- ‘Feluda’ is a paper-based COVID-19 detection strip that resembles a pregnancy test kit in application and method, Developed by a team of CSIR-IGIB
- Compared to the existing costly and time-consuming test method, this kit is affordable and shows test results in just one hour
- CSIR-IGIB has signed MoU with Tata Sons for commercial production of the kit in large volumes
After keeping the nose to the grindstone for 2 months, sleep-deprived, working 20 hours a day with a strong determination, a group of scientists headed by two Bengali scientists Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty and Dr. Souvik Maiti finally reached their target as they successfully developed a paper-based strip that can detect COVID-19. What more, they have named it after the famous Bengali detective character ‘Feluda’, known for his acumen in the detection of criminals. In a new role, the mission is to detect Covid-19 cases though.
As the positive cases of the disease continue to soar across India, efficient test kits have become the need of the hour. The scientists of CSIR-IGIB came up with such a test kit which claims to be cost-effective, robust, and user-friendly and can detect the outcome of the test within an hour. This kit resembles the characteristics of Pregnancy kits.
While speaking to the Machine Maker, Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty, Senior Scientist at CSIR-IGIB said, “In Science, almost 99% of the time we fail. We have a very limited scope of success on a day-to-day basis. It is completely different as compared to other professions. Most of our ideas are actually wrong and we continue to keep refining them until we reach the desired solution. While working on ‘Feluda’, the kind of chemistry and biology involved has never been used in this manner and the moment we got a successful result, we immediately filed a patent”.
He added that a nice prototype of ‘Feluda’ is ready and we all can expect it to start functioning within few weeks but currently they are putting additional effort to actually make it better, in terms of accuracy and cost with the goal that it becomes accessible in much simple format that will give the desired output.
The team behind ‘Feluda’
The team behind the development was headed by Dr. Chakraborty and his senior Dr. Maiti. It even comprised 7-8 students who are mostly pursuing a Ph.D. in CSIR-IGIB.
CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative biology is a reputed Scientific Research Institute based in Delhi. It was established in 1977 as a government organization. Earlier, it particularly focussed on biochemical research, but with time, it shifted to integrative Biology. According to Chakraborty, it is now the largest co
