THE PROBLEM
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has highlighted biosurveillance, public health, logistics and computational challenges. The extent of genomic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in circulation, and the potential impact of genetic variation on viral transmissibility, pathogenicity, and diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy have yet to be fully elucidated.
OUR APPROACH
Through Noblis Sponsored Research, Noblis is analyzing hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 genomes provided by a collaborator who is sequencing COVID-19 clinical samples obtained from a diverse cohort throughout the United States. This work is expanding our nation’s SARS-CoV-2 baseline genomic sequence data repositories, supporting state and local surveillance through direct public health agency reporting, and advancing our overall understanding of the transmission and evolution of clinically important variants, ultimately protecting and saving lives worldwide.
As part of this ongoing research, the genomes sequenced and analyzed and associated metadata are available at NCBI GenBank: PRJNA718231. Learn more about the Noblis response to COVID-19 at noblis.org/covid-19.
Noblis In Action – Client Success Story
Scientists from Noblis and the Defense Biological Product Assurance Office (DBPAO), a component of the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense’s (JPEO-CBRND) Enabling Biotechnologies, are continuously evaluating mutations and circulating variants from genomic sequence data to assess their potential deleterious effect on SARS-CoV-2 detection assays using Noblis’ unique bioinformatics application, BioLaboro. Features include:
- BioVelocity® – our patented tool which identifies unique signature regions in a set of target sequences
- Primer3 – an open-source tool which determines potential Polymerase Chain Reaction assay regions in the identified signatures
- PCR signature erosion tool (PSET) – our DBPAO-Noblis tool which evaluates new and existing assay sequences against user customizable sequence datasets
Noblis is furthering DBPAO’s mission to be a trusted resource for high-quality and reliable biological threat agent detection assays. Updated research data generated by BioLaboro are published at the online discussion forum, virological.org. You can read our press release at noblis.org/coronavirus.
More publications and presentations related to this work and research can be found on the Noblis BioPortal website at bioportal.noblis.org.