An expert on viral evolution on what's happening with coronavirus mutations
“Variants” is the latest term to leap from the infectious disease lexicon to the general public as a result of the coronavirus, as the effects of mutations on transmission and vaccines have emerged as top global concerns.
But researchers like Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Bern, have been looking out for genetic changes to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. The virus, like any virus, has picked up mutations as it spread, but it’s only been in the past few months that it has been altered in ways that could dramatically shift the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tracking the subtle changes to the virus’ RNA is like global detective work, requiring health officials around the world to sequence a selection of viral samples and share them broadly. Without that, scientists are flying blind.
“A lot of places that have had big outbreaks are places where we do not have good sequencing, and the only way to monitor for new variants is through sequencing,” Hodcroft said.
Projects like Nextstrain and GISAID already gather data on pathogen evolution, but with all the interest in SARS-2 variants, Hodcroft and colleagues have built another site, CoVariants.org, to highlight select mutations and variants of interest. On the site, users can dive into where the mutations and variants have been found, how they may influence factors like transmission and immune protection, and what their impact on viral proteins looks like.
STAT spoke with Hodcroft last week about CoVariants.org and all things viral evolution. Excerpts from the conversation are below, lightly edited for clarity.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/08/variants-expert-in-viral-evolution/
