So rather than just determining the number of people who have tested positive, from the genomes that we are seeing, we can estimate the total number of positive cases in the state, and that can give us a better understanding up-front of the scope of the problem. Mehoke: Yes, you could use the genomic sequence to estimate the actual infected population size. Are there other potential public health uses of your data? But we'll know more about whether or not that is true as we generate more sequences. Logically, we're expecting that we would see more virus imported from European countries because of travel patterns. This suggests that the virus here in Maryland may have been imported from geographic locations other than China, because we expect that cases in Washington State were originally introduced from China. The initial two COVID-19 sequences that we've analyzed suggest that the viruses circulating locally have small genetic changes that are different from the ones circulating in, for example, Washington State. So by looking at the genomic sequence of the virus causing COVID-19 in a particular person's sample, you can begin to understand how the virus is spreading because the genomic sequence looks a little different as the virus mutates and spreads in different geographic areas? Mehoke: As the outbreak progresses, this work will help us understand how well the virus is contained in Maryland. So far, there are over 1,000 COVID-19 genomes that have been published worldwide.Ĭoverage of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting operations at JHU and how Hopkins experts and scientists are responding to the outbreak Our goal is to understand how the virus is evolving as it spreads. For example, does the virus look similar to how it looks in Washington State? Or in New York? Or in Europe? Right now, we're working to analyze many genome sequences from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that are circulating in the Baltimore area and in Maryland. When we look at virus genome sequences from patient samples that test positive for COVID-19, we're interested in understanding where their version of the virus originated. Thielen: Genomic sequencing is a technique that allows us to read and interpret genetic information found within DNA or RNA. What is genomic sequencing and why is it important to understand the genomic sequence of COVID-19? The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. They joined Sarah LaFave, a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, to discuss how they are carrying out their work and how it can inform the evolving response to the pandemic. Peter Thielen and Thomas Mehoke, molecular biologists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, are working to sequence the genomes of different variations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness COVID-19, in order to track its mutations as it spreads.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |