Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), which has joined the battle against COVID-19 with gusto, is planning to introduce yet another novel facility — a viral research lab. It is going to be bio-safety level 3 lab with self-locking doors, negative pressure, high efficiency filters, ante-room etc.
Now that testing has become an important feature to control the pandemic spread, scientists say the clinical specimen inactivation should be performed in such a Bio-safety Level-3 (BSL3) laboratory as the pathogenicity of COVID-19 is not completely known yet.
Since constructing a permanent fixed bio-safety facility will take much time and resources, the premier defence lab has configured a mobile BSL3 with both bio-safety and flexibility urgently needed to handle the pandemic. Two local companies — ICOMM specialising in fabrication of shelters and iClean, a turnkey design and build company with years of experience in building the containment facilities — have been identified to build the lab.
Work is in progress at iClean to build mobile mobile BSL-3 lab for the ESIC Hospital in Erragadda to start screening patients immediately and it will also be useful for conducting research projects related to drug discovery, therapeutics and vaccine development in collaborations with other scientific organisations. “BSL3 lab is mandatory for live virus cultures and having this facility is the main criteria to get funding from research projects,” they explained.
With viral outbreaks pretty frequent in the country, there is a need for timely diagnosis for an appropriate public health response to prevent any epidemics and this is where bio-safety labs play a key role in diagnostics. “This first of its kind mobile lab can be moved and scaled up quickly to speed up COVID-19 screening as we have only four BSL3 labs in the country,” they informed.
This mobile lab can be put up at different places, is capable of screening 1,000 samples a day, provides safety to the personnel and helps identify unknown viruses causing significant morbidity in the community due to epidemics and/or potential agents for bio-terrorism. Public health authorities can also understand and conduct surveillance of existing and new viruses, develop diagnostic kits and undertake research for identification of newer genetically active/ modified agents, they added.
