Biotechnology, which gave the world the first DNA vaccine against Covid, is going to play an important part in this integrated holistic healthcare approach for elimination of tuberculosis.
In an interaction with the media, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, announced an integrated strategy to achieve ‘TB-Mukt Bharat’.
He announced the commencement of the pilot phase of Indian Tuberculosis Genomic Surveillance Consortium (InTGS) with successful completion of WGS of 182 strains of Mtb isolated from TB patients. The initiatives on improving tuberculosis outcomes included AYUSH interventions to improve TB patient quality-of-life (QOL), mapping drug resistance through genomics & artificial intelligence (AI) and novel blood bag technology to enhance quality and shelf life of stored blood.
Data-Driven Research to Eradicate TB (Dare2eraD TB), an umbrella programme of the Department of Biotechnology, was launched on World TB Day in 2022. Indian Tuberculosis Genomic Surveillance Consortium (InTGS) is one of the key components of the programme. It is modelled on the lines of the highly successful Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).
Dr Jitendra Singh said this will be the first pan-India initiative at such scale to fully understand the biological characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and the effect of the mutations on transmission, treatment, and disease severity..
This could lay the groundwork for use of modern technology such as WGS for TB diagnosis and surveillance in future. Dr Singh also announced development of a novel Indian blood bag technology by scientists at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (DBTinStem), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology
