The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday. White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three components: a major funding boost for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments […]
A large team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across the U.K. has found that most SARS-CoV-2 variants rarely persist through secondary transmissions. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group the RNA sequencing of nearly 1,400 nasal swabs from patients between March and June of last year, and what they […]
Scientists are closely watching the emergence of variants of the coronavirus that may be more infectious. The spread of troubling variants in different parts of the world, including in the U.S., is happening as officials are racing to inject vaccines into the arms of adults. Michael H. Peters, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of […]
An international collaboration of researchers have developed a computational method to identify malaria parasites as they move around the world with their human hosts—key to measuring impact of elimination campaigns. Led by University of Melbourne Professor Karen Day, Laboratory Head at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) and Bio21, the team […]
What are variants? We asked Divya Shah, Epidemics Research Lead, to explain how variants happen, what they mean for treatments and vaccines—including for COVID-19—and how we can prevent them. What are mutations, variants and strains? Although the terms viral mutants, variants and strains are often used interchangeably, they generally hold different meanings. To spread, a […]
The U.K. government announced Friday that it plans to work with a German biopharmaceutical company to develop vaccines targeting emerging variants of COVID-19 as public health officials call for new tools to keep the virus in check as it mutates. As part of the deal, Tuebingen, Germany-based CureVac said it would supply the U.K. with […]
Could wearing two masks be better than one? The emergence of new and more infectious COVID-19 variants has led health experts to consider “double masking” as a potential way to better protect yourself and those around you. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating whether donning a medical mask underneath a typical […]
Genome-wide association studies are used to observe the genetics of multifactorial genetic diseases. Identifying the cause of such genetic diseases can be challenging, as the contribution of each genetic defect is often very small. Pathway analysis is used to further elucidate the impact of each genetic variant, thus increasing the physiological relevance and significance of […]
When a new mutation within the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) emerges that a particular antibody can no longer neutralyze, it is often called an escape variant. With the rapid identification of these new variants within the infected population, and also in lab-generated versions of the spike protein, an exhaustive escape variant matrix […]
Pfizer now says it is developing booster shots amid fears its COVID-19 vaccine is less effective against the highly-infectious variants from Brazil and South Africa Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday his firm will develop booster shots ‘every time’ a variant makes its shot less effective Last week, lab tests suggested Pfizer’s current shot worked […]
