Friday, March 13, 2020

Canadian researchers isolate the COVID-19 virus
A team of researchers from Sunnybrook, McMaster University and the University of Toronto has isolated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak.
“While the immediate response is crucial, longer-term solutions come from essential research into this novel virus,” Dr. Samira Mubareka, microbiologist and infectious diseases physician at Sunnybrook, said in a statement.
According to the statement from Sunnybrook, the isolated virus helps researchers globally develop better diagnostic testing, treatments and vaccines, and gain a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 biology, evolution and clinical shedding.
“Now that we have isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we can share this with other researchers and continue this teamwork,” Dr. Arinjay Banerjee, NSERC post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University said.

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