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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Scientists at the New York City Health Department have begun analyzing the genetic material of the new coronavirus to allow them to trace the origins of any future outbreaks in the coming months, while cautiously seeking to reopen the city in much closed.
Their work joins similar efforts at dozens of institutions around the world, which have been sequencing the genomes of virus samples and pooling their findings in a global online database, allowing researchers to observe subtle differences between samples to track the spread of the outbreak.
Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the city’s health commissioner, told Reuters during a visit this week to the Public Health Laboratory in Manhattan that genome sequencing could help mitigate any second wave of infections later this year.
“We can use that fingerprint information to understand if those additional infections are due to infections that were still here in the city or if they were imported from somewhere else,” he said in an interview, wearing a floral-patterned cloth mask over his nose and mouth.
On the ninth floor of the lab, scientists in blue protective gear and face shields are working on sequencing in cramped rooms, the doors of which are covered with hazard warnings and safety precaution standards.
Colleagues on other floors perform diagnostic tests for COVID-19, the life-threatening respiratory illness caused by coronavirus, on samples sent from city hospitals without their own testing facilities.
The shower heads are embedded in the ceilings of the building’s drab hallways, and can be activated with a pull of the cable if a worker fears they’ve been contaminated by whatever they’re studying.
The genome of the new coronavirus consists of a single short chain of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, a distinctive sequence of genetically based molecules, sometimes described by letters, that the virus uses to hijack its host’s cellular machinery and make copies of itself .
Only four different types of letters make up an RNA chain, referred to by geneticists as c, u, a, and g. The new coronavirus genome is approximately 30,000 letters long, small compared to the 3 billion letters that make up the DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, of the human genome.
As the virus replicates within its host, it can make small transcription errors, altering its genetic signature. These mutations, which can be transmitted in subsequent infections, can be detected in samples taken from patients to create a kind of genetic family tree.
Across the First Avenue from the Public Health Laboratory, scientists at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine who sequenced samples of the virus deduced that the variant of the virus that dominates New York City, the heart of one of the deadliest outbreaks in the world, came through Europe.
“It is like doing detective work,” Adriana Heguy, one of the researchers at New York University, said in an interview.
She has been sharing her results with colleagues around the world through the Germany-based GISAID database, which was created to track the ebb and flow of influenza viruses. “You can find your broadcast chain by doing this,” he said.
Health officials can use this knowledge to determine which measures are more effective than others and where their points of vulnerability may be.
While most mutations are trivial and do not affect the behavior of the virus, Heguy and other researchers are also working to accumulate enough samples to see if clinical differences are seen in different variants of the virus, and their work can help design a vaccine that offers the widest possible protection.
Reports by Jonathan Allen and Hussein Waaile, Ross Colvin and Jonathan Oatis edition
