Ana S. Gonzalez-Reiche, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Research Project:
Tracking the Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Could Inform COVID-19 Vaccine Development
Grant Awarded:
- Emerging Respiratory Pathogen Award
Research Topics:
- basic biologic mechanisms
- computational biology
- epidemiology
- immunology immunotherapy
- public health
Research Diseases:
- COVID-19
- respiratory viruses
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic we have seen continued appearance of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. People with weakened immune systems due to underlying conditions such as cancer can develop prolonged viral infections lasting for months to over a year. Under these conditions, the virus can diversify faster, which is thought to give rise to new viral variants that evade existing immunity, such as Omicron. We will study how the virus evolves during long-term infections and becomes able to evade immunity. By examining these changes over time, we can see evolution happening at higher resolution compared to typical infections. This detailed view will give us a better idea of how viral variants arise. Because the virus evolves faster due to unrestricted growth in long-term infections, tracking these genetic changes could help us predict SARS-CoV-2 evolution in the population and inform vaccine development.
Page last updated: October 4, 2024
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