Researchers at the University of Manitoba warn that unless scientists continually track changes in the rapidly mutating virus that causes COVID-19, testing could produce false negative results and efforts to produce a vaccine could be thwarted. The Manitoba researchers compiled data from patients around the world in order to detect genetic variations in the virus across geographic regions. This is significant, because the tests used to detect the novel coronavirus use small pieces of DNA that bind to the viral sequence and amplify the signal of any genetic material in the patient sample. "Other regions of the virus that don't show these changes should be used for designing primers." The study team recently received funding to develop online tools to track genetic variations and develop new testing primers that avoid sections of the genetic sequence prone to change.

Source: CBC News July 07, 2020 17:03 UTC