India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—In a trail-blazing development, researchers at the Jamia Millia Islamia(JMI) university have developed MI-SEHAT, a saliva-based testing kit to detect COVID-19 that gives result within an hour.
The kit, that has a provision for at-home testing as well, has been developed by a team of scientists from the Multidisciplinary Centre for Advanced Research and Studies (MCARS) at JMI. The scientists involved in its invention are Dr. Mohan C Joshi, Assistant Professor (UGC-FRP &DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance fellow), Dr. Tanveer Ahmad, Assistant Professor (UGC-FRP) and Dr. Jawed Iqbal, Ramalingaswami Fellow (DBT), in collaboration with Dr. Rohit Kumar from Vardhman Mahavir Medical College (Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi) and Dr. Gagan Deep Jhingan, CEO of Valerian Chem Ltd.
India’s first RNA extraction-free saliva-based detection technology for COVID-19, it has been named MI-SEHAT (Mobile Integrated Sensitive Estimation and Highspecificity Application for Testing).
Explaining about the new technology, Dr Mohan C Joshi of the research team said that the new technology developed by them for testing Covid-19 gives results within an hour without intervention of a technical expert.
