<
https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/06/the-virus-that-won-t-quit-new-research-reveals-how-sars-cov-2-evolves>
"In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the world scrambled to
understand the fast-moving virus, a team of Australian researchers set out to
study how the virus would evolve long term.
With millions of infections unfolding globally and new variants rapidly
emerging, they wanted to learn how SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19
— would evolve in a controlled lab setting, and if it would weaken over time.
Fast forward more than five years and their findings, published in the
Journal
of Virology on Tuesday, have confirmed the remarkable adaptability of the
virus, shedding light on common mutations which emerge repeatedly and
independently in different strains.
The research, which is the most extensive of its kind to date, could help
predict the emergence of future variants and inform treatment and prevention
design, said first author Dr Charles Foster, from UNSW’s School of Biomedical
Sciences.
"This work could help us anticipate how the virus might evolve next. If we can
identify mutations that arise repeatedly —even in a lab setting—it gives us a
chance to predict which changes could emerge in the real world, so we can
prepare for them,” Dr Foster said."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: June 12, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-june-12-131293492
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
