Omicron Variant Contains a “Greatest Hits” Collection of Mutations

Viral surveillance has once more proven its usefulness as researchers in South Africa alerted the world to the growing prevalence of Omicron—a new SARS-CoV-2 variant which, on November 26, was designated by the World Health...

First Pharmacogenomics Study on COVID-19 Vaccine Reactions

Why do some individuals experience severe difficulties with their daily routine after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, while others incur no effects at all? What if you could forecast who would and who wouldn’t experience a...

Advancing Precision Medicine in South Carolina

In September this year, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) officially announced their entry into the fast expanding space of population genomics with the launch of the In Our DNA SC program. In partnership...

SARS-CoV-2 Trends: Recent Variants, What’s to Come, and What’s Still Needed

Almost a year after the initial onset of COVID-19, new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged, spreading quickly and straining health systems globally. What can we learn from those variants and how can health system leaders gain...

One of the largest gene-based collapsing analyses reveals potential candidate genes for population screening

A recent paper from the Helix research team presents evidence that four additional gene-disease associations warrant consideration: GCK with diabetes mellitus, HBB with hemoglobinopathies, PKD1 with cystic kidney disease, and MIP with cataracts.

Evidence of “double mutant” substitutions E484Q and L452R in the B.1.429 lineage suggest convergent evolution of immune escape mutations

Two variants have been shown to help the SARS-CoV-2 virus avoid the immune system’s antibody response; their emergence in separate viral lineages suggests convergent evolution in response to selective pressure.

Update on the Helix, Illumina surveillance program: B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in the UK, spreads further into the US

Most recent update: January 11th, 2021 What’s new? Helix has identified 74 cases of B.1.1.7 (up from the 51 reported in our January 6 update). B.1.1.7 appears to currently represent 0.27% of all positive tests...