The initiative has been dubbed Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology and Surveillance (SPHERES). Its goal is to conduct “large-scale, rapid genomic sequencing of the virus that causes COVID-19.” The initiative will involve 37 state and local public health laboratories, as well as clinical diagnostic corporations and academic and nonprofit institutions across the US.
“With extensive participation from US clinical and public health laboratories, academic institutions, and the private sector, the SPHERES consortium aims to generate information about the virus that will strengthen COVID-19 mitigation strategies,” the CDC writes on its website.
A report by the New York Times explains how “tiny mutations accumulate” in the novel coronavirus’s genetic code as it replicates. Scientists can track and investigate the replications to develop an understanding of how the virus is evolving over time.
The CDC predicts that the research from the initiative will help officials “gain important insights to support contact tracing” and will “better align sequencing requirements and resource needs with different sources of funding, technology, expertise and other means of support.”
The US is not the only country to develop a sequencing initiative to better understand the coronavirus. The UK established a similar consortium over a month ago. In late April, Canada also launched an initiative titled the Canadian COVID Genomics Network.
Gene sequences have previously been shared among researchers to better understand and track influenza, and the method was also used in response to Ebola outbreaks in several African countries, according to the New York Times.