Daryl Domman, assistant professor at The University of New Mexico Center for Global Health, and Darrell Dinwiddie, assistant professor in the UNM Department of Pediatrics, have discovered a novel variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus among COVID-19-positive samples in New Mexico.
The two have been working with the New Mexico Department of Health and other health officials to sequence the genomes of coronavirus samples from across the state, as well as those from other regions of the Rocky Mountains. A new variant named the “Pelican Lineage” has been observed in New Mexican samples dating back to December 2020.
Health scientists around the world have been coordinating their efforts to understand the coronavirus by uploading the genomic data they collect to an online platform called GISAID. After noticing an unfamiliar mutation at the 677P site of the genetic sequence in several of his SARS-CoV-2 samples, Domman turned to GISAID to see if anyone else had found a similar variant.
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