Pthe suspicion (later confirmed) of a suspected case of Covid-19 in Brazil, a team of Brazilian scientists entered a race against time to sequence O DNA of the new strain of coronavirus. According to the BBC Brazil, researchers from the Adolfo Institute Lutz (IAL) and the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the University of São Paulo (IMT–USP) sequenced O genome of the virus in 48 hours.
“On average, countries are managing to do the sequencing 15 days. We wanted to do it in 24 hours, break the record, but not everything worked in the process. We did it in 48 hours, like the Pasteur Institute in France ”, stressed the researcher from IMT–USP Ester Cerdeira Sabino.
“In previous epidemics, such as the SARS or the MERS, it was possible sequence the virus, but the results were only obtained months later. Now we are managing to do the sequencing in real time, while the epidemic happens ”, added the researcher.