Scientists at New York City's health department have begun to analyze the novel coronavirus's genetic material to allow them to trace the origins of any future outbreaks in the coming months as they cautiously look to reopen the largely shuttered city.
NEW YORK - Scientists at New York City’s health department have begun to analyze the novel coronavirus’s genetic material to allow them to trace the origins of any future outbreaks in the coming months as they cautiously look to reopen the largely shuttered city.
Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the city’s health commissioner, told Reuters during a tour this week of the Public Health Laboratory in Manhattan that genome sequencing could help blunt any second wave of infections later in the year. Colleagues on other floors run diagnostic tests for COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, on samples sent over from city hospitals without their own testing facilities.
Only four different kinds of letters make up a string of RNA, referred to by geneticists as c, u, a and g. The novel coronavirus genome is about 30,000 letters long, tiny compared with the 3 billion letters that make up the DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, of the human genome. “It’s sort of like doing detective work,” Adriana Heguy, one of the New York University researchers, said in an interview.
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