Scientists make genetic map of Ebola disease strain raging through Africa
International team of researchers have completed genome sequence of the disease strain now raging in Africa, a key step in finding a vaccine
It's on a killing spree, and now it has a new - and remarkably complete - genetic mug shot.
An international team of scientists has sequenced the RNA of 99 Ebola virus samples collected during the early weeks of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. The feat, described on Thursday in the journal Science, gives researchers a powerful new tool in their effort to contain the deadly virus.
This is the largest sequence of Ebola viruses ever, [done] in less than a month
"The genome sequence of a virus is the blueprint on which that virus is built," said Pardis Sabeti, the Harvard geneticist who helped oversee the study. "Diagnostics are built on knowing that sequence; vaccines are also built using genome sequences. And if you want to build those as best you can, you want to know what the virus looks like today."
Scientists are already scouring that sequence for clues to help them design effective drugs and vaccines. It could take years to find them all, Sabeti said.
For now, evidence embedded in the RNA reveals that the Ebola virus responsible for killing at least 1,552 people so far originated with a single transmission from an animal to a human in Guinea. It also shows that this lineage, which first emerged in humans in 2013, diverged from other variants of Ebola in 2004.
Sabeti and her team began sequencing Ebola samples in June, just days after the virus was detected in Sierra Leone on May 25. The results have been available to scientists on the National Centre for Biotechnology Information's website since mid-June, almost as soon as the sequencing machines spat them out.
"We want to enable everyone in the scientific community to look at the genetic sequences at once and crowd-source a solution," she said.