Posted 9:49 AM by Blah blah

Canadian Lab Makes Breakthrough in Finding SARS Cure

Speaking of "warmer" research, a Canadian lab in Vancouver has cracked the genetic code of the SARS virus!!! Congratulations Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre for their fantastic, speedy work!

Canadian laboratory first to sequence coronavirus believed to cause SARS (Canadian Press):
_________________
The Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, part of the BC Cancer Agency, completed the first publicly available draft sequence of the new virus in the early hours Saturday, after several days of round-the-clock efforts. A spokesman for the World Health Organization called the achievement "an extraordinary step."

"I knew that it could happen quickly," Dick Thompson said in an interview from Geneva.

"And frankly, I thought that the CDC," - the U.S. Centers for Disease Control - "would get it done first."

Dr. Marco Marra, director of the laboratory, said the raw sequencing data would be posted on the Internet by the end of the day Saturday and the lab's analysis of the total sequence would be up on the Web by the end of the weekend.

Marra said it's key that other laboratories study the results and confirm the findings, so that science can determine whether this new virus is actually responsible for the disease that is sweeping the globe.

"Our intention is to release the data so that anybody who is wanting to help has the fundamental information that they would need," he said from Vancouver.

"The sequence is fundamental information and should be available for this purpose: for vaccine development, for diagnostics, for whatever."
_________________
To see the raw genetic code, download it here from the lab's SARS page! Yay for the Internet. When I open up the "draft genome sequence assembly, release 1, of the TOR2 isolate," it starts like this:

TOR2_draft_genome_assembly_120403 Release 1
CTACCCAGGAAAAGCCAACCAACCTCGATCTCTTGTAGATCTGTTCTCTA...
(and so on for a few hundred lines)

From Nova, here's how scientists make a genetic vaccine.

(As a Java guy, I'm happy to see they use an open source Java program called Sockeye to see a 3-D view of the genomic information. Here's a way to use Java to help fight disease, Fred!)