UK labs seek to bolster global network for sequencing

UK virus hunting labs seek to bolster global variant network | AP News LONDON (AP) — The air conditioners hum constantly in the lab at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, countering the heat thrown off by rows of high-tech sequencing machines that work seven days a week analyzing the genetic material of COVID-19 cases from throughout the U.K. AP NEWS

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Britain made sequencing a priority early in the pandemic after Cambridge University Professor Sharon Peacock identified the key role it could play in combating the virus and won government funding for a national network of scientists, laboratories and testing centers known as the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium. This allowed the U.K. to mobilize academic and scientific expertise built up since British researchers first identified the chemical structure of DNA in 1953.

The consortium is now backing efforts to bolster global sequencing efforts with a training program focused on researchers in developing countries. With funding from the U.K. government, the consortium and Wellcome Connecting Science plan to offer online courses in sampling, data sharing and working with public health agencies to help researchers build national sampling programs.

“There is inequity in access to sequencing worldwide, and (the project) is committed to contributing toward efforts that close this gap,″ the group said, announcing plans to offer the first courses early this year.

By sequencing as many positive cases as possible, researchers hope to identify variants of concern as quickly as possible, then track their spread to provide early warnings for health officials.

The U.K. has supplied more COVID-19 sequences to the global clearinghouse than any country other than the U.S. and has sequenced a bigger percentage of its cases than any large nation worldwide. ...