Detection of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant in New York Researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have developed a software tool called "Variant Database" that has detected an emerging lineage of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) isolates in New York. The novel SARS-CoV-2 virus is the agent responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to sweep the globe and has now caused more than 2.41 million deaths. The Variant Database (VBD) tool can be used to quickly assess the rapidly changing mutational landscape of the viral spike protein that SARS-CoV-2 uses to bind to and infect host cells.