National Technology Day - This IoT enabled disease testing machine from India has been endorsed by ICMR and WHO for COVID-19, TB, hepatitis, H1N1

Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics is the manufacturer & innovator of the indigenous technology platform 'Truenat Real-Time PCR', this single tech-enabled platform can test 30+ infectious diseases. On the occasion of National Technology Day, Siddharth Shankar from Time Now caught up with Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair, Director & CTO of Molbio Diagnostics, who speaks about how a technology-driven diagnostic platform is saving lives in India and all over the world.
National Technology Day - This IoT enabled disease testing machine from India has been endorsed by ICMR and WHO for COVID-19 TB hepatitis H1N1
Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics, the manufacturer & innovator of the indigenous technology platform 'Truenat Real-Time PCR'. Truenat is a portable, IoT enabled platform that fits in a suitcase. This is a chip-based test that has a sample-to-result time of less than one hour. Such fast, early testing will help enable quicker and therefore, more effective treatment. In the year 2020, Truenat became the world's only point-of-care platform approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Tuberculosis detection. Truenat is also validated and approved by ICMR.
Dr Chandrasekhar Nair Director amp CTO of Molbio Diagnostics
Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair, Director & CTO of Molbio Diagnostics
Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair, Director & CTO of Molbio Diagnostics in conversation with Siddharth Shankar from Times Now talks about Truenat, the IoT-enabled single-point platform that can test over thirty infectious diseases.
Excerpts
Siddharth: Tell us about Truenat Technology? How does it work? What are the features of the Truenat Platform?
Dr. Nair: Truenat® is a novel, rapid, fully automated point-of-care Real-Time PCR platform with minimal dependency on a skilled workforce and infrastructure availability. It is a portable, battery-operated, IoT-enabled platform that provides results within one hour from sample collection. It can detect and diagnose over 30 infectious diseases such as Covid-19, Tuberculosis, Malaria, HPV, Hepatitis and many more.
The Truenat® technology works through the detection of nucleic acids (RNA/DNA) from the infectious agent(s) using Taqman chemistry (Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction). The platform includes a portable pair of instruments – Trueprep AUTO universal nucleic acid extraction device for a 20-minute fully automated sample prep and Truelab analyzer for a 35-minute 40-cycle real-time PCR. The Truelab real-time micro PCR analyzer is available in 3 variants - UnoDx, Duo and Quattro that can perform 1, 2 and 4 tests at a time, respectively. The Truenat test is performed using a set of 2 single-use disposable consumables – A universal micro-fluidic cartridge for purification and extraction of nucleic acids from a clinical sample using the Trueprep AUTO device and a disease-specific micro PCR chip pre-loaded with reagents for the PCR reaction on the extracted nucleic acids using the Truelab micro PCR analyzer.
The versatile Truenat® platform allows for multi-disease testing in various settings, including primary healthcare or on-demand testing in a tertiary hospital.
Truelab Uno Dx Real Time Quantitative micro PCR Analyzer
Truelab® Uno Dx Real Time Quantitative micro PCR Analyzer
Siddharth: What inspired you to develop such a technology?
Dr. Nair: Growing up in India, we have been affected by multiple infections presenting similar symptoms, making the diagnosis a challenge. In the absence of a definitive diagnosis, clinicians are forced to resort to presumptive treatment. The PCR technique, with its excellent sensitivity and specificity, fascinated us as a technique that would be very useful in diagnosing various conditions. The challenge was that PCR required expensive infrastructure and a significant trained workforce, limiting its availability in clinical settings. Hence, we set ourselves a goal to make this technique free of all infrastructure, requiring minimal training and affordable. This needed us to build a battery-operated platform that was easy to use and maintain, with all reagents being room temperature stable and leveraging mobile connectivity.
Molbio aims to make a molecular testing platform that can provide results on demand. Today, it is one of our USPs: Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. Truenat® has successfully decentralized and democratized access to molecular diagnostics in India and the world.
Siddharth: How has the platform helped in keeping a check on the spread of various infectious diseases like COVID-19, Tuberculosis, Dengue and more in India?
Dr. Nair: The reliable and rapid Truenat platform, with its proven ability to be used in field settings, is a powerful tool to achieve the global Strategic Development Goals to eliminate the most devastating and rampant infectious diseases. Today, the extensive deployed base of the Truenat platform with its multi-disease capabilities is helping with the rapid and accurate diagnosis of diseases like Covid19, Tuberculosis, and Dengue, resulting in precise therapy, a rapid return to wellness for the patient and a reduction in the spread of disease.
Molbio Diagnostics’ Truenat® has played a significant role in India’s fight against COVID-19 by expanding access to RT PCR testing in rural, resource-limited geographies across the country. Truenat® has been among the most significant single contributors in India's diagnostics space in the war against Covid19.
Truenat® for TB diagnosis, after getting ICMR and WHO endorsements, is now rolled out by the Government of India’s National TB Elimination Program in over 1500 microscopy centres where Truenat® is being used as the front-line screening test with DST, right at the first point of patient contact.
Siddharth: Do you think it can be a revolutionary technology in the healthcare sector?
Dr. Nair: The Truenat platform has already revolutionized Molecular Testing for infectious diseases by providing on-demand testing without dependence on infrastructure or a skilled workforce. The growing need for such testing fueled by the rapid spread of multiple infections and increased awareness of PCR's gold standard testing is transforming Molecular Diagnosis from a speciality tool to a standard diagnostic tool. Truenat plays a vital role in improving access to Molecular testing.
The platform has been at the forefront of molecular testing in India. ICMR has approved the platform for H1N1, Covid19, and Tuberculosis. Truenat has helped increase the diagnostic preparedness of the country by being the only ICMR’s National Institute of Virology validated platform for Nipah. WHO also endorsed Truenat® as a frontline tool for Tuberculosis testing in 2020.
Over the past few years, Truenat® has been rapidly scaled up across the country because of its ability to be deployed at all levels of the healthcare chain, including PHCs and CHCs, thus decentralizing molecular testing and democratizing access to high ended, impactful tools at the first point of patient contact. Its portable, point-of-care ability has taken molecular diagnosis of diseases to even the remotest parts of the country, such as Kyelang in Himachal Pradesh, Leh, and other remotest areas in India.
Siddharth: Are you planning to expand the used case of the technology to test other diseases? What are your future plans?
Dr. Nair: Truenat® is a multi-disease platform, and in addition to the TB program, we expect other disease elimination programs to leverage the technology at the grassroots level. The Indian private sector is also using the Truenat® platform for accessing high-quality diagnostic care, which includes a wide range of tests.Truenat® already tests for more than 30 diseases and 30 more are in the pipeline.
There is also a growing global demand for high quality molecular diagnostic tools that can be specially deployed at the point of care. We expect to establish ourselves as a significant player in the global molecular diagnostics market in the coming years. At the same time, we are also working on other point-of-care technologies to provide better solutions for AMR and non-infectious disease testing applications.
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