Laboratory

Nasopharyngeal swabs have been used for decades to diagnose respiratory infections, including COVID-19. A trained healthcare professional takes the sample by inserting a long swab through the nose to an area at the back of the nasal cavity called the posterior nasopharynx. Despite their widespread use however, there is no universally agreed upon optimal technique […]

A nasal test for COVID-19 takes just a few seconds, but getting a long swab stuck up the nose isn’t an experience many people would describe as pleasant. New research led by a team at St. Paul’s Hospital hopes to make the diagnostic process a bit more comfortable. Their study found that rotating the swab

A nasal test for COVID-19 takes just a few seconds, but getting a long swab stuck up the nose isn’t an experience many people would describe as pleasant. New research led by a team at St. Paul’s Hospital hopes to make the diagnostic process a bit more comfortable. Their study found that rotating the swab

Immune cells that can recognize residual HIV-infected cells in people living with HIV (PLWH) who take antiretroviral therapy (ART) remain active for years, says a new study published today in eLife. The findings also suggest the majority of these immune cells, called CD8+ T cells, should have the capacity to detect the HIV-infected cells that

Earlier testing and contact tracing might have prevented SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from becoming established in the United States and Europe, suggests a new study recently published in Science. For the study, an international research team-including UBC scientist Dr. Jeffrey Joy-reconstructed the spread of SARS-CoV-2 across the world using genomic data from coronavirus

Can you provide a brief overview of your lab’s current research focus? Our joint lab groups at Simon Fraser University and the BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS investigate HIV pathogenesis and the human immune response to viral infection. We use molecular, cell biology and genetics approaches to examine host/pathogen interactions that may inform the

Early interventions were effective at stamping out coronavirus infections, but subsequent, poorly monitored travel allowed the virus to ignite major outbreaks in Europe and North America, according to a new study. A new study combines evolutionary genomics from coronavirus samples with computer-simulated epidemics and detailed travel records to reconstruct the spread of coronavirus across the

Detailed genetic analyses of the strains of virus that cause COVID-19 suggest that the outbreak took hold in Washington state in late January or early February, but went undetected for weeks. That’s the upshot of two studies published by the journal Science, based on separate efforts to trace the genetic fingerprints of the coronavirus known

Une Žtude suggre que les efforts de traçage des contacts aprs l’apparition des premiers cas de COVID-19 aux États-Unis et en Allemagne ont portŽ fruit en janvier, la transmission communautaire ne prenant racine que des semaines plus tard. Les rŽsultats de l’Žtude contredisent ceux de travaux antŽrieurs selon lesquels le coronavirus avait continuŽ de se