Dr Tasnim Suliman in the biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) laboratory. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has kept scientists on their toes for more than a year, while it grew stealthier and new variants cropped up. South Africa obtained its first laboratory isolate of the virus from Covid-19 positive patients at Tygerberg Hospital in April 2020, courtesy of the collaborative efforts of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Stellenbosch University (SU), a news release stated. A virus isolate was taken from an infected patient and grown in the lab under safe and controlled conditions. Dr Tasnim Suliman, associate lecturer in virology at UWC and a post-doctoral research fellow working under Professor Megan Shaw, an influenza expert – in collaboration with Professor Wolfgang Preiser, SU's head of medical virology – has been growing and studying the virus in the laboratory since then.