The first whole genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 obtained at the MUG

21.04.2020

Łukasz Rąbalski, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Laboratory of Recombinant Vaccines of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk was the first to obtain the whole genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus isolated from the Polish patient. The unique finding was then published in the GISAID global database. The genetic material was isolated in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology Diagnostics located in the 7th Navy Hospital in Gdańsk. By using the latest generation of Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencers, it was possible to decode the virus genome without additional procedures that could introduce distortions. Although a whole genome sequence obtained by Polish scientists was already deposited in the GISAID global database, it was isolated as a result of analysing viruses propagated in the laboratory cell lines, not from an individual patient.

Currently, subsequent sequencing of viruses from Polish patients is also being carried out at the Laboratory of Hematology of the University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk. The data obtained by the Polish scientists will serve an essential contribution to worldwide research on both the global epidemiology of COVID-19 disease and understanding of the molecular evolution of the virus.