Development of new system for combatting COVID-19 that can be used for other viruses

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) A team working to combat the COVID-19 virus has a system that will unlock researchers' ability to more quickly develop and evaluate developing vaccines, diagnose infected patients and explore whether or how the virus has evolved. The scientists developed the system by engineering a reverse genetic system for SARS coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, that is causing the current COVID-19 pandemic. The study is currently available in Cell Host & Microbe.