COVID-19: Mumbai's Nair Hospital gets first genome sequencing lab

Mumbai's first genome sequencing laboratory at civic-run Nair Hospital will offer the city an added advantage in the battle against coronavirus as the new facility can analyse a large number of samples in a short period and also identify mutants, something that will be especially useful in hotspot areas, the hospital said on Wednesday.

The lab was inaugurated virtually by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Another project- Spinraza therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in children was also launched at the T. N. Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital, one of the premier medical institutes in the city as part of its centenary celebrations.

Speaking after the virtual inauguration, Thackeray said Nair Hospital, which was set up 100 years ago during the Spanish flu pandemic, is preparing to cater to the health of citizens for another century.

Next-generation genome sequencing (NGS) is a method of characterisation of pathogens. This technology is used to determine the order of nucleotides in entire genomes or targeted regions of RNA or DNA, which helps in understanding differences between two strains of the virus, thereby identifying mutants, it said.