Covid-19: Manipur gets 1st genome sequencing facility in Northeast

July 11: In a first of its king in Northeast India, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Saturday inaugurated an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) sequencing facility in Imphal. With the inauguration of the facility samples now can be tested in the INSACOG sequencing facility at ISBD Campus Takyelpat Imphal where genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 will be performed not only for Manipur but also for other states of north-eastern region of India.

Samples can now be tested at the INSACOG sequencing facility at the Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) Campus at Takyelpat in the outskirt of Imphal where genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 will be performed.

Since the outbreak, researchers across the world have found multiple variants of coronavirus that differ from the one found in Wuhan, China in December 2019 which is considered to be the ‘original’ strain. In order to identify and know about the new strains that coronavirus mutates into, scientists are scanning samples from infected persons through a process called ‘genome sequencing’.

The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes instructions organized into sections, called genes, to build the virus. Scientists use a process called genomic sequencing to decode the genes and learn more about the virus. Genomic sequencing allows scientists to identify SARS-CoV-2 and monitor how it changes over time into new variants, understand how these changes affect the characteristics of the virus, and use this information to better understand how it might impact health.