Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair won the Infosys Prize 2021 in Engineering and Computer Science for his development and large-scale commercialization of Truenat, a new point-of-care testing platform for PCR-based medical diagnostics. Dr. Nair’s work has enabled testing for millions of COVID-19 cases across resource-limited settings in India and the diagnosis of multiple infectious diseases including tuberculosis all over the world.
PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) based testing is a Nobel Prize-winning technology that has become the gold standard for testing many infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, dengue, chikungunya, H1N1, and hepatitis. However, the cost and workflow complexity of PCR testing platforms have restricted their use to sophisticated labs. Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair has created a battery-operated, rugged, field usable PCR device that can be deployed at scale in resource-limited settings. The platform comprises a portable machine and disposable cartridges enabling point-of-care testing for early detection for many diseases. Dr. Nair has achieved what many global competitors have been struggling to do for over two decades.
Dr. Nair’s Truenat platform was originally developed for tuberculosis screening where it made it possible to reduce the diagnosis window from six months to three weeks after appearance of symptoms, enabling directed treatment at the onset of infection and reducing community spread of a disease that claims one death every minute in India. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, India was able to use Truenat to increase its testing capacity from 100 to over 4000 locations, primarily in states with poor access to medical infrastructure. By now eight million COVID tests have been performed on Truenat. It also leverages India’s mobile network for automatic data rollup to National Programs and enables detection of areas where diseases first appear.
Truenat is currently being deployed in ten resource-limited countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. It represents the kind of innovative hardware product that will enable Indian technology companies to succeed on the global stage.
Watch him share his experiences in making diagnostics accessible even in the remotest areas.
Read more about his groundbreaking research in this field here: www.infosyspri...
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26 авг 2024
