Two teams led by BC-CfE scientists have qualified for the Rapid Response Funding for COVID-19 Research Projects overseen by Genome BC.
The first team is led by Dr. Chanson Brumme, the BC-CfE’s Assistant Laboratory Director. Working with Don Kirkby, the BC-CfE laboratory’s lead software developer, Brumme’s team’s project is called “Rapid release of an easily accessible SARS-CoV-2 genome analysis pipeline”.
This project will adapt an open-source software package, originally co-created by Kirkby and former BC-CfE scientist Dr. Art Poon, to analyze genetic data from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic. The original software package, also funded by Genome BC, was successful in identifying drug resistance in other viral diseases including HIV and Hepatitis C.
A beta version, already in use, has so far successfully assembled SARS-CoV-2 genomes from various publicly-available data sources. This vital work will increase local and global capacity to sequence circulating SARS-CoV-2 genomes, which will in turn advance understanding of the molecular epidemiology and virology of this infection.
The BC-CfE hopes to see this new tool rapidly adopted by the global scientific community. The BC-CfE estimates that the software will be publicly available within one week, which will enable users to contribute COVID-19 genomic data to public repositories. This public sharing of data will further enable researchers to track the virus’s origins, spread, and evolution in real time. Furthermore, the data will help develop much-needed medications and vaccines against COVID-19.
The second BC-CfE team fighting COVID-19 is co-led by Dr. Zabrina Brumme, the BC-CfE’s laboratory director, and Dr. Christopher Lowe, Medical Microbiologist and Virologist, who leads the Virology Laboratory at St. Paul’s Hospital. Z. Brumme and Lowe’s team has two aims: the first is to use sophisticated molecular technology to better understand the performance characteristics of the current COVID-19 testing process, and the second is to develop a quantitative SARS-CoV-2 viral load assay. The development of a quantitative viral load assay will be critical in helping to determine which therapeutic interventions are most effective.
Together, these efforts will advance our understanding of COVID-19 and lead the way towards controlling this pandemic.