USING GENETICS TO STUDY THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF COVID-19 IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA

As of April 2020, only one viral genome had been recorded for Arizona COVID-19 cases. Drs. Michael Worobey and David Baltrus are working to add nearly 40 more genomes to GenBank, a repository curated by the National Institutes of Health. In addition to contributing data, the team is understanding the relationship of the Arizona outbreak to the national epidemic. By comparing viral genomes across the country, the group hopes to determine origin of COVID-19 in Southern Arizona and the number of transmission chains in the area.