COVID-19 generally know by the name Coronavirus has taken thousands of lives within a few days. Corona testing methods are bit costly and you have to wait for hours to get yourself tested. In such difficult time Suresh Neethirajan has done a research on it and came up with ’10-Minute Coronavirus Test’ . So we have decided to interview him for our magazine.
Pro Media Mag : First of all our readers would like to know about the start of your professional career?
Suresh Neethirajan : I moved to Canada in 2003 and became a Canadian Citizen and have travelled and lived in USA for 2 years, and in Japan for 2 years for research. As a Bioengineer and a Scientist, I was fortunate to interact with world class researchers across multiple domains.
Pro Media Mag : Who or what inspired you to launch ’10-Minute Coronavirus Test’ method?
Suresh Neethirajan :Inspiration has to be turned on by inner self. It is no one’s responsibility to inspire. Today’s research becomes tomorrow’s reality and it is what I enjoy doing. I look at the reason why I do what I do and see the bigger dimensions of it, and how my contributions are benefiting to others in various ways. There are currently no commercially available on the spot instant reliable virus and bacterial detection tools. We are working on to overcome this barrier and meet the gap. Access to rapid diagnostic testing will aid patients, clinicians and public health officials to test for people infected or not and can take action sooner to mitigate the spread. The test we have developed will serve as a diagnostic platform and as a rapid screening tool.
Pro Media Mag : Is it cost effective comparing to other testing methods?
Suresh Neethirajan : Rapid testing is a key measure to arrest the spreading of virus infections. What we go through currently because of this Covid 19 as human beings is unprecedented. The proverbial Black Swan. But bionanotechnology can alleviate the fear through scientific tools for on the spot testing of viruses. With our developed tools, the low complexity diagnostic tests will become easily available for reducing the risk of points of intake to the health care system which is becoming overwhelmed.
Pro Media Mag : Any particular reasons behind testing it on chickens?
Suresh Neethirajan : The goal for our projects are to bring down the time to results and the price per test in terms of detecting the pathogens . Because we have been in this space for few years, we know that there are currently no on the spot instant detection tools available for viruses. We have developed similar tools for detecting avian influenza viruses for poultry birds in 2015.
Pro Media Mag : What’s the success rate of such testing on humans?
Suresh Neethirajan : Work under progress.
Pro Media Mag : What makes it helpful in Stopping the Next Pandemic?
Suresh Neethirajan : To be able to create impact in the society through innovation, research and development by actively playing leadership roles in technology development for human and animal health enhancement.