Molecular Laboratory at the Department
The Collaboration has been able to utilize the microbiology laboratory at the Department of Microbiology, University of Ruhuna, Faculty of Medicine since 2007. It was decided to establish a Molecular Laboratory at the Department of Microbiology in mid-2013. Since then, plans were implemented to develop a fully-equipped molecular laboratory including main lab equipment (Eg; ELISA reader, PCR machine, UV transilluminator, Centrifuge, etc.) and diagnostic tools (In-HOse ELSA and PCR protocols) to test the samples collected under the SEARCh study.
By the end of 2015, a fully equipped molecular laboratory was established in the space provided at the Dept. of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, using the equipment donated by Prof. Christopher Woods (DGHI and HYC) and the necessary training/ testing protocols provided by Prof. Duane Gubler (Duke National University of Singapore) and Dr. Dharshan de Silva (Director, Genetech Research Institute, Colombo) with the capacity of testing Dengue IgM/ IgG ELISA and Dengue PCR under the SEARCh study. In 2017, sample testing of two main research studies (a PhD research on MRSA and a Dengue research) were initiated at the laboratory. The results supported a few publications within the same year.
In 2018, the collaboration started to help to confront the public health crisis in the country. Ruhuna investigators and trainees in the Duke-Ruhuna collaboration—including several from the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health at the DGHI—were well-positioned to assist THK clinicians by providing RT-PCR diagnosis facilities for the Influenza outbreaks that appeared in Southern Sri Lanka in May 2018
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