Genomic Analysis of SARS-COV-2: New Variants and the Vaccine

A discussion on the Selective Pressures, Biology and Genomics of SARS-COV-2. The focus of this discussion is on the epidemiology of SARS-COV-2 and how novel variants discussed in research literature and on mass media might play a role in the vaccine rollout around the world. 

Dr. Gus Kousoulas is the Head of Department of Pathobiological Sciences, the Director of the Division of Biotechnology & Molecular Medicine (BIOMMED) at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. He is also the Principal Investigator of Louisiana Biomedical Research Network (LBRN) and the President of the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI). First, Dr. Kousoulas shared his insights on the biology of SARS-COV-2, it’s biology and replication and highlights the significance of specific mutations that have been detected in various populations around the world. In the second part, Elia Brodsky from Pine Biotech focuses on Bioinformatics and what considerations around the analysis of available genomic data on SARS-COV-2 reveals important considerations for the vaccine rollout and serves as a great example of the applications of Bioinformatics for Infectious Disease Research. 

If you are interested to leverage public domain data to learn about viral evolution, selective pressures and the impact on vaccine efficacy, we recommend joining the upcoming program on Infectious Diseases.

Bioinformatics for infectious disease research will utilize use-cases for bioinformatics analysis methods that are used in viral evolutionary studies, anti-viral drug discovery as well as the emergence of drug resistance in bacterial pathogens. We will also showcase some of the latest developments on the T-BioInfo platform designed for virology studies and introduce the upcoming Omics Logic training programs for those interested in effective utilization of bioinformatics for infectious diseases, immunology and microbiology.

https://edu.tbioinfo.com/bioinformatics-for-infectious-diseases-lsu

We’ve designed this program to (~) introduce the data, resources and tools that you can use to apply bioinformatics to publicly available data on infectious diseases. In this program, we will:

(~) Understand Viral Diversity and its role in epidemic Infectious Diseases that keep re-emerging, including zoonotic transmission, transmission between humans – and the process of viral and bacterial disease development

(~) We’ll Learn about Bioinformatics Analysis Approaches to study viral genomes – and understand the relationships between viral strains, haplotypes, finding differences in sequence data – and seeing the implications for drug and vaccine design

(~) You’ll Gain hands-on experience by analyzing Curated Datasets from public domain collections, guided by experts with bioinformatics experience and knowledge about virology.

You can learn more about SARS-COV-2 origin and pathogenesis here: covid-19-origin-and-pathogenesis-of-sars-cov2