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Openly available toolkit to help lab-based coronavirus research

Date:
February 25, 2021
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
During the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, laboratories worldwide have pivoted from their usual research to working to identify new COVID-19 drug and vaccine candidates. This experimental work requires access to clinical isolates and systems that allow genetic manipulation of SARS-CoV-2. A new paper reports an openly available SARS-CoV-2 laboratory research toolkit aimed at increasing availability of these materials.
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The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has meant that many laboratories around the world have quickly redirected research efforts to focus on COVID-19. Correspondingly, there has been an urgent need to establish the right research tools that will improve our understanding of SARS-CoV-2, and allow researchers to focus on critical areas of COVID-19 research, such as studies on new variants of SARS-CoV-2, examinations of vaccine efficacy and evaluation of antiviral drugs.

While these tools can sometimes take years to develop, a new paper published in PLOS Biology by an international consortium, including researchers in Australia, Scotland and Estonia, addresses this need for COVID-19 research tools, and describes an openly available SARS-CoV-2 laboratory research toolkit. This coronavirus research toolkit is aimed at increasing the availability and accessibility of a variety of research materials, particularly for researchers who may be unaccustomed to coronavirus research.

One important component of the toolkit is the "single plasmid reverse genetics" system, which allows researchers to make synthetic infectious coronaviruses using a specially constructed DNA plasmid that can be grown in bacteria and then used to make viruses in cultured mammalian cells. This genetic tool will allow researchers to easily manipulate the coronavirus genome, and in particular will permit the study of individual SARS-CoV-2 mutations, or combinations of mutations, such as those found in the new variants of concern.

Following the generation and validation of the toolkit materials, all cell lines and virus strains have been deposited at the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control and all antibodies, proteins, cDNAs, cell lines and reverse genetics constructs were made available online through a not-for-profit web interface (https://mrcppu-covid.bio/).

According to the authors, "By making this toolkit available to the global research community, these resources will fast-track investigation of many aspects of COVID- 19 research, including novel variants of concern, drug discovery and vaccine development."


Story Source:

Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Suzannah J. Rihn, Andres Merits, Siddharth Bakshi, Matthew L. Turnbull, Arthur Wickenhagen, Akira J. T. Alexander, Carla Baillie, Benjamin Brennan, Fiona Brown, Kirstyn Brunker, Steven R. Bryden, Kerry A. Burness, Stephen Carmichael, Sarah J. Cole, Vanessa M. Cowton, Paul Davies, Chris Davis, Giuditta De Lorenzo, Claire L. Donald, Mark Dorward, James I. Dunlop, Matthew Elliott, Mazigh Fares, Ana da Silva Filipe, Joseph R. Freitas, Wilhelm Furnon, Rommel J. Gestuveo, Anna Geyer, Daniel Giesel, Daniel M. Goldfarb, Nicola Goodman, Rory Gunson, C. James Hastie, Vanessa Herder, Joseph Hughes, Clare Johnson, Natasha Johnson, Alain Kohl, Karen Kerr, Hannah Leech, Laura Sandra Lello, Kathy Li, Gauthier Lieber, Xiang Liu, Rajendra Lingala, Colin Loney, Daniel Mair, Marion J. McElwee, Steven McFarlane, Jenna Nichols, Kyriaki Nomikou, Anne Orr, Richard J. Orton, Massimo Palmarini, Yasmin A. Parr, Rute Maria Pinto, Samantha Raggett, Elaine Reid, David L. Robertson, Jamie Royle, Natalia Cameron-Ruiz, James G. Shepherd, Katherine Smollett, Douglas G. Stewart, Meredith Stewart, Elena Sugrue, Agnieszka M. Szemiel, Aislynn Taggart, Emma C. Thomson, Lily Tong, Leah S. Torrie, Rachel Toth, Margus Varjak, Sainan Wang, Stuart G. Wilkinson, Paul G. Wyatt, Eva Zusinaite, Dario R. Alessi, Arvind H. Patel, Ali Zaid, Sam J. Wilson, Suresh Mahalingam. A plasmid DNA-launched SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics system and coronavirus toolkit for COVID-19 research. PLOS Biology, 2021; 19 (2): e3001091 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001091

Cite This Page:

PLOS. "Openly available toolkit to help lab-based coronavirus research." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 February 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225143659.htm>.
PLOS. (2021, February 25). Openly available toolkit to help lab-based coronavirus research. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 1, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225143659.htm
PLOS. "Openly available toolkit to help lab-based coronavirus research." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225143659.htm (accessed December 1, 2024).

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