VNIR Biotechnologies Private Limited, a spinoff by Bengaluru based Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India has launched indigenous fluorescence probes and Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mix for Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection which are molecular probes used in COVID-19 test kits.

VNIR Biotechnologies Private Limited is incubated at Bangalore Bio-innovation Centre (BBC) of Government of Karnataka.

Prof. T. Govindaraju and Dr. Meher Prakash, co-founders of VNIR have developed the Florescence probes and PCR mix for RTPCR detection.

These molecular probes are used in COVID-19 test kits. A typical, PCR based test kit has three critical components (oligos, enzymes, molecular probes).

The first two are partly available in India and partly imported while molecular probes used in COVID 19 tests, however are only imported.

The molecular probes are used to track the amplification in PCR. Their immediate application is for COVID-19 testing, but they are general-purpose molecular tools for molecular diagnostic tests of several diseases.

VNIR has innovated synthesis protocols for a suite of molecular probes, which will be useful for PCR based COVID-19 testing. VNIR will be filing for the protection of its process innovation.