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The Spike Protein Surveillance Project led by HBBE Team member Dr. Matthew Bashton aims to develop an ‘early warning system’ for Covid-19 variants.
Northumbria University is set to develop new methods for detecting Covid-19 ‘Variants of Concern’ and identifying potential ‘Variants of Interest’ following new funding from the national genome sequencing consortium, COG-UK.
As part of an expansion of the COG-UK research portfolio, Northumbria University has been awarded a grant to further improve the way scientists monitor and map Covid-19.
The research is developing a computer program to screen mutations for potentially increased transmission and potential immune escape – when certain variants of the virus evolve to evade our natural or vaccine-induced resistance to it.
Dr. Matthew Bashton, Vice Chancellor’s Senior Fellow in Northumbria’s Department of Applied Sciences and project lead on the research, likens the programme the team are creating to an anti-malware program for your computer. He explained: “Using information from existing studies and computer-generated simulations, we will be able to highlight what could become potential ‘Variants of Concern’ and flag them for a heightened infection control response and contact tracing. This will avoid allowing these new variants to spread and it then being too late to intervene most effectively. “Although this can’t replace public health decision-making and lab studies, the aim is to better inform it in an automated way which compliments the UK’s widespread genomic surveillance program pioneered by COG-UK,” continued Dr. Bashton.
The project has recently attracted media attention.
Read the full press release from Northumbria University and the article written by Chronicle here.
