UMass Medical School researchers are tracking COVID mutations in Worcester; Heres what theyre finding – MassLive.com

With several cases of the highly infectious COVID-19 variant confirmed in Worcester, UMass Medical School researchers have doubled their efforts to track and trace the mutated infections in Central Massachusetts.

Their method? Genomic sequencing, which lets them determine the genetic makeup of virus samples that are collected through local testing efforts. The tracking project is being done in collaboration with the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The UMass researchers and their colleagues proposed the sequencing idea over the summer. They had done it before, originally as a way of trying to understand the role mutations played in the transmission of bacterial infections in hospitals.

We wanted to see how bacteria, such as MRSA, spreads in the hospital, said Dr. Richard Ellison, an epidemiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center involved in the effort.

After several prominent strains of the COVID-19 emerged in different parts of the world, interest in the project grew. Last month, researchers began collecting COVID samples from routine PCR tests, sending them off to the Department of Public Health for sequencing. Those samples were previously flagged as suspicious by UMass researchers based on an analysis of the viruses genetic codes.

We use an instrument at UMass that looks for three different COVID genes, Ellison said. If you have the U.K. variant, a sample might test positive for two of the genes, but negative for another.

This pro-active targeting of available viral samples from Worcester residents led to the discovery of at least three cases of the B.1.1.7 COVID variant in Worcester, which first emerged in the United Kingdom in November. UMass researchers hope not only to continue identifying the mutated infections in the Worcester area, but work with local officials to determine if theyre clustered in a particular part of the city.

They can do this through contact tracing. Because viruses can pick up several mutations a week, epidemiologists can attempt to trace the samples that have identifiable changes back to the circumstances of transmission based on the likeness of their genome.

If one person gives the virus directly to another person, their sequences are essentially going to be identical, Ellison said.

As of Monday, there are at least 7 cases of B.1.1.7 in Massachusetts. The new strain is thought be caused by a mutation on the viruss spike protein, specifically the receptor-binding domain the part of the virus that docks onto the host cell. Experts believe that the vaccines are still effective, preventing the new variant from attaching to cells, injecting its genome and replicating.

But uncertainty lingers. Successful viral mutations may threaten the efficacy of the vaccines, and could potentially cause more severe illness, Ellison said.

Federal health officials on Monday reiterated that the U.K. mutation could become the dominant strain in the U.S. as early as March, a prediction based on CDC modeling. Genomic tracking efforts will ultimately be key to getting the pandemic under control, Ellison said.

But in the U.S., genomic sequencing capabilities have been lagging behind that of other countries, like the U.K.

The reason they could identify the variant in the U.K. was because they were routinely sequencing, Ellison said.

Its thanks to genomic sequencing that Broad Institute researchers and others discovered over the summer that more than 80 unique genomes of COVID-19 here in Massachusetts had been imported from other parts of the world. Researchers in that study also stated that the Biogen conference in Boston that took place at the onset of the pandemic was linked to tens of thousands of cases.