Scientists use genomic sequencing to monitor Covid-19 variants


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Working in lab with microscope

As the Omicron COVID-19 variant continues to spread, many may wonder how scientists are tracking the variant and looking out for new ones that may turn up.

This is through genomic surveillancing, a practice where scientist collect samples from populations and are able to monitor trends, spiking variants and detect new variants if any pop up.

“If there are any normal changes or new changes that have not been recorded in past or on these data bases. They can also be identified with the genome sequencing. So you are not only looking at the changes that have been previously recorded, you can see new changes and if there are a lot of these new changes, that could mean that there could be a new variant,” Clinical Genomics Scientist at HNL Lab Medicine, Geetika Trivedi, PhD said.

Viruses that have RNA as genetic material like SARS-CoV-2 mutate very fast. Having scientist study genomic sequencing can help discover new variants more quickly and aid in determining what treatments are working.