INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics or Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium) is the forum set up under the

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India. The Minister of Health and Family Welfare ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

on 30 December 2020, to study and monitor genome sequencing and virus variation of circulating strains of

COVID-19 in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

. Initially it was tasked to study the virus variant Lineage B.1.1.7 earlier found in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in December 2020. INSACOG works as a consortium of 38 national laboratories for genome sequencing located in different parts of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. All these 10 laboratories are required to share 5% of positive samples to INSACOG for further research and studies. A

National Centre for Disease Control The National Centre for Disease Control (previously known as the National Institute of Communicable Diseases) is an institute under the Indian Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It was established in J ...

(NCDC) nodal unit maintain a database of all samples of the new variants. Two national genomic sequencing database centers are appointed 1)

National Institute of Biomedical Genomics National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) is a national level research institute for genomic medicine in India. It is located at Kalyani, West Bengal, Kalyani West Bengal—50 km from Kolkata. It has been established as an autonomou ...

and 2) CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. In its early research INSACOG identefied virus variant Lineage B.1.617 referred to as a double mutation variant.

References

{{COVID-19 pandemic in India, state=collapsed COVID-19 pandemic in India Scientific organisations based in India Genomics Bioinformatics organizations Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Biological research institutes Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

See also

References