Harriet Mears

New online! RNA evolution shapes SARS-CoV-2 success

SARS-CoV-2 variant biology: immune escape, transmission and fitness In late 2020, after circulating for almost a year in the human population, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) exhibited a major step change in its adaptation to humans. These...

We show that this gene is expressed during infection and contributes to the ability of the virus to hide from our innate immune responses. A review on many of the other mutations that lead to innate immune escape can be found here: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

We noticed that some variants of sars-cov-2 had evolved a sequence which allows them to express a new gene. This gene, which we named N.iORF3, encodes a shorter version of the virus’s existing Nucleocapsid gene.

Four years in the making, our paper is finally out! This was an enormous team effort and a great end to my time at @crick.ac.uk in @davidlvbauer.bsky.social 's lab 🧪🦠🧬