Key Findings
COVID-19 variants with increased transmissibility and symptom severity often evading previous immunity have prompted UNH researchers to receive NIH funding to sequence thousands of COVID-19 samples to understand their genomic level, which is critical to manage the ongoing presence of COVID-19 in New Hampshire at both the community and state level.
About the co-Researcher
W. Kelley Thomas, Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Science, Director of UNH’s Hubbard Center for Genome Studies, Scientific Director of the UNH COVID-19 Test Lab
Contact information: Kelley.Thomas@unh.edu, 603-862-2470, Hubbard Center for Genome Studies at UNH
First reported on in UNH Today.
Researchers: W. Kelley Thomas and P. Mouser
The UNH College of Life Sciences & Agriculture has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue its genomic surveillance of COVID-19 variants in New Hampshire. This research will shed light on how specific variants increase transmissibility, evade the immune systems of those previously infected, or increase symptom severity. W. Kelley Thomas, professor and director of the UNH Hubbard Center for Genome Studies and scientific director of COVID-19 test lab, says that understanding variants at a genomic level is becoming increasingly relevant as the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.5 becomes the predominant strain of COVID in the nation.
The grant, amounting to $790,000 from the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, will allow UNH's Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research to sequence approximately 5,000 COVID samples collected from positive tests from UNH, the state Department of Health and Human Services, and Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Additionally, UNH will evaluate whether genomic surveillance of wastewater can serve as an indicator for SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks at the community level. Paula Mouser, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UNH, and Thomas will collaborate on this aspect of the research.
Dr. Fengxiang Gao, chief of the Bureau of Public Health Laboratories for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, says that this collaboration between UNH, Dartmouth, and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center will be critical to efforts to manage the ongoing presence of COVID in New Hampshire.
“This collaboration leveraging expertise at UNH, Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center will be critical to our efforts to manage the ongoing presence of COVID in New Hampshire,” says Dr. Gao.
The funding received by UNH College of Life Sciences & Agriculture will play a critical role in managing the ongoing presence of COVID-19 in New Hampshire. By sequencing COVID samples and evaluating the genomic surveillance of wastewater, researchers aim to better understand how COVID-19 variants increase transmissibility and evade the immune systems of those previously infected.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health. Co-researchers include W. Kelley Thomas and P. Mouser.
