Assam lab isolates COVID-19 virus

Thursday, 2 July 2020Newsdesk

The Regional Medical Research Centre in Assam's Dibrugarh has become the fourth laboratory in the country to successfully isolate SARS-CoV-2 virus that can be used for the production of a vaccine against COVID-19, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday. Scientists at the RMRC have isolated the COVID-19 virus in VERO-CCL81 cell line in the BSL-3 level lab available at the institute, he told reporters here.

New Delhi, 02 July 2020

As per news report of PTI, the RMRC is the third government laboratory in the country after the NIV, Pune; and the CCMB, Hyderabad, to isolate the virus. The other facility to do so is Bharat Biotech, a private biotechnology laboratory in Hyderabad. The scientists used an immortal cell line VERO-CCL81, derived from kidney epithelial cell lines from green African monkey, which expresses the important ACE2 receptor needed by SARS- CoV-2 for cellular entry, Sarma said quoting the researchers.

Source - ptinews.com