Page 20 - James Lu News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The US lags behind on yet another tool to end the pandemic: Viral genomics.

Why the US may not see the next dangerous coronavirus variant coming Vox.com 1/19/2021 Brian Resnick © David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images More samples of coronavirus ought to be sent out for genetic sequencing. There’s a reason why a new, more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2 appeared first in the UK: The country does a lot of viral genetic sequencing. Since the start of the pandemic, researchers in the UK have uploaded 151,859 individual SARS-CoV-2 sequences to GISAID, an international platform for sharing viral genomic data. That’s the highest number of...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A Bay Area company is working with the CDC to identify cases of the new coronavirus variant in the United States. The more contagious variant, which was first observed in the United Kingdom, has already been detected in eight U.S. states, including California. San Mateo-based Helix has partnered with Illumina to sequence the genetic material from positive COVID-19 tests, hoping to more quickly identify areas where the variant is spreading. "Viral sequencing or viral surveillance is one of the tools we have not used as much as we should have during the pandemic," said Ja...

Posted January 5th, 2021 for Illumina With support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Illumina and Helix have already identified more than 50 cases of the new variant in the US SAN DIEGO--( )-- Illumina, Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN) and Helix today announced a collaboration to augment national surveillance infrastructure in the US to track the emergence and prevalence of novel strains of SARS-CoV-2 with support from the CDC. The combination of Illumina’s sequencing technology and expertise and Helix’s national COVID-19 testing footprint will significantly expand th...

Experts fear that in the coming weeks — following holiday travel and gatherings — the U.S. could see another surge of cases that could also drive hospitalizations and deaths even higher.