The BC-CfE’s Dr. Jeffrey Joy has joined an international team of researchers in the fight against COVID-19. Dr. Joy, a Senior Research Scientist specializing in evolutionary genetics, molecular epidemiology and bioinformatics at the BC-CfE, is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.
Using a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research along with support and resources provided by the BC-CfE, Dr. Joy and his team are studying the genomic evolution of COVID-19 and their work was published this month in Science, one of the world’s top academic journals. Titled “The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in Europe and the US“, the research delves into “when, where and how the earliest sustained SARS-CoV-2 transmission networks became established in Europe and North America.” The scientists working with Dr. Joy join teams around the world working to contain the current pandemic.
By studying the available genomes, Dr. Joy’s team compares them with the genomes of other coronaviruses to determine common features and evaluate patterns of viral spread.
The fight against the spread of COVID-19 is an international collaborative effort, with Dr. Joy and BC-CfE researcher’s working closely with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control as well as other Canadian teams. It is hoped this close collaboration will not only allow for a better assessment of the origins of the disease, it will also help exert control and, ultimately, elimination of the current, and future, coronavirus outbreaks.
We are grateful to the federal government for this emergency funding, which is enabling researchers at the BC-CfE, UBC and across Canada to help find solutions to this urgent crisis,
– says Dr. Joy.