West Virginia University alumnus Md Asraful Jahan, a Bangladesh native, never imagined
the knowledge he gained as a graduate student would be invaluable to his home country.
As a WVU graduate student studying genetics and developmental biology, Jahan conducted research with Nikola Kovinich, then an assistant professor of genetics in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.
It was in Kovinich’s lab that Jahan learned the principles and methods of the qRT-PCR technique – a powerful test used to determine the presence of a certain gene in any samples tested and, most recently, in COVID-19 testing.
After receiving his Ph.D. in August 2019, Jahan returned to his alma mater in Bangladesh, the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Less than a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world and few, if any, countries were prepared to handle it.
After the government of Bangladesh requested help from Shahjalal University, one of four universities to provide support, the vice-chancellor provided funding to the Jahan’s department to develop a Covid-19 detection lab.
“Most of the faculties did not join our project,” he said. “Even my family members did not want me to join the project because COVID-19 is highly infectious and has no curable medicines. But, I convinced them and made them understand that we, the researchers, should contribute to the nation in this health crisis in the world.”
Jahan and his team began developing the lab in April; it became operational in May.
Though it took only a few months, the process to get there was painstaking and
arduous.
“The World Health Organization was spreading confusing information about the infection routes of COVID-19. At that time, I strongly considered the virus as airborne and carefully designed a biosafety level two lab.”
The biosafety level covers laboratories that work with pathogenic or infectious diseases
that pose a moderate health hazard to humans.
If not for his training with WVU Davis College professors, his lab may not have been actualized, or if so, functional.
“The theoretical and practical knowledge acquired during my Ph.D. studies helped me to design the lab. My adviser, Dr. Nikola Kovinich, taught me the molecular techniques very carefully, and I appreciate his teaching method, “Jahan said. “He taught me everything twice, then left me as an independent researcher. Dr. Kovinich’s Lab was new and we had only a few established protocols. I worked intensely on developing various protocols that were needed for my research. This training was a great experience for developing protocols.”
Ideally, a separate building located in an isolated place is recommended for working with highly infectious pathogens like COVID-19; however, that was not an option for the Shahjalal University Covid-19 lab.
“But we did not have such facilities,” he said. “At the same time, we have to save our people, our country and that was crucial. Considering the situation, I thought very critically and designed the lab in my own way. It was always on my mind that I am designing a lab where my students will be working. So, I took extra precautions,” he said.
Although Jahan had no prior experiences working with infectious diseases, he learned
biosafety and how to handle biohazard wastes as a graduate student, and his mentor
taught him how to think through every step of an experiment before proceeding.
“I closed my eyes, thought deeply and critically and wrote every step of the protocol,” he said.
Thorough and diligent, Jahan contacted experts across the country involved with COVID-19 detection to learn more about their protocols, even contacting the Sansure Company in China to learn more about their reagents.
“I wanted to make a flawless standard operating procedure for the lab. I knew a single mistake was enough to contaminate the whole lab and the volunteers,” he said. “I worked very hard day and night. I made it simple so volunteers could easily follow it. I knew that a simple mistake could destroy our lab, our life. So, I was so careful ,” he said.
He was also diligent about training volunteers.
“At first I gave theoretical training to the volunteers. I described the principles
and methods of qRT-PCR technique thoroughly in a very easy way so that everybody
could understand clearly,” Jahan explained. “Then I provided a detailed theoretical
training on biosafety since this is the major part of the work. After theoretical
training, I provided them practical training in the lab for about 10 consecutive
days. I trained them one by one to make sure everybody was doing the same.”
“To the best of my knowledge, some Covid-19 detection labs are closed due to various problems, but our lab has been in operation since May 19 and still working smoothly without any problem. Our results are solid and reliable. A lot of labs throughout the country faced immense problems regarding the validity of the tests, but we have been producing concrete and authentic test results from the beginning. I think this is our great achievement,” he said.