GUWAHATI: An IIT-Guwahati team of researchers have started experiments, exploring the possibilities to clone the immunogenic proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the novel coronavirus disease, to be used as diagnostics and possible vaccine for the novel coronavirus infected patients.Most importantly, they have developed a viral vector system to deliver foreign antigens that could be useful in future treatment for COVID-19 or novel coronavirus infected patients, said associate professor Sachin Kumar from the Biosciences and Bioengineering (BSBE) department of IIT-G, who is leading the group of researchers working on viral diseases.Recently, the research group has developed recombinant vaccines against Japanese Encephalitis and classical swine fever virus which got published in the journal Vaccine and Archives of virology. By developing these vaccines, Kumar said that the IIT-G lab could substantially contribute to the research and development towards severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus -2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is popularly known as the novel coronavirus. Earlier, the virus from the same coronavirus family came in between 2002-2004 as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or coronavirus -1.“Now, the lab at IIT Guwahati is exploring the possibilities to clone the immunogenic proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to be used as diagnostics and vaccinate the novel coronavirus infected patients. Although it is just a proof of concept and the work requires a thorough validation in cell culture and animal model before coming to any conclusion. Similarly, the development of rapid detection and portable diagnostic kits for various viruses and microorganisms is also being pursued at the institute,” Kumar told TOI.“We have already substantially contributed for human pathogen (Japanese Encephalitis virus) and animal pathogen (classical swine flu virus). So these experiments will help in COVID-19 research also,” he added.According to the World Heath Organization (WHO), since COVID-19 emerged in November-December in Wuhan, the deadly virus has infected around three lakh worldwide by Monday.The viral immunology laboratory at IIT-G, which works primarily on the most common avian paramyxovirus, a similar kind of virus that infects avian species including poultry through respiratory tracts, is actively involved in the development of vaccines and diagnostics against avian paramyxovirus which is transmitted most often by direct contact with diseased or carrier birds.IIT-G has also developed hand-sanitizers as prescribed by the WHO and are being distributed to the staff and visitors in the campus. The WHO, on March 11, declared novel coronavirusinfectious disease (COVID-19) a pandemic.