IIT-M’s 50 lakh mobile lab to reach remote areas in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: IIT-M will soon commission a mobile diagnostic facility for rural areas. The lab was reviewed by health minister Ma Subramanian and senior public health officials on Saturday, after inaugurating a mass vaccination camp on the campus.

The mobile lab Parakh, built by Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), Mysore, can travel to remote areas where testing facilities might not be available. This van can travel to those regions, perform sample collection, processing, and analysis in real-time, an IIT-M release said.

The IIT-M biotechnology department head Guhan Jayaraman said the facility can be deployed for surveillance of any infectious diseases such as dengue, Tuberculosis (TB) and other kinds of viral outbreaks. “It is a BSL-2 lab equipped with an RT-PCR, centrifuge, refrigeration units, biosafety cabinet and other facilities. It can be further equipped with other portable devices and used for detection of other diseases and medical conditions,” he said. The long-term objective is to deploy low-cost portable diagnostic devices.

The lab, built with a project cost of 50 lakh funded by the centre's Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), can also connect with hospitals and health centres in urban areas. Subramanian said, “The gift to IIT Madras by BIRAC will benefit all .” Meanwhile, the corporation administered vaccines to faculty, non-teaching staff, frontline workers and contract staff, along with their dependents, during the mega vaccination camp