Bette Korber and Colleagues Publish Research on COVID-19 Virus Variant

Bette Korber and Colleagues Publish Research on COVID-19 Virus Variant

Bette Korber, a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the lead author on a new paper titled Tracking Changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike: Evidence that D614G Increases Infectivity of the COVID-19 Virus, which came out in the July 2 publication of the scientific journal Cell.

In this landmark study, Korber and her colleagues investigated genetic changes occurring in SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, as it spread around the world. By analyzing viral genome sequences collected from multiple countries, the researchers identified a specific mutation in the virus’s spike protein known as D614G.

The spike protein plays a critical role in the infection process, allowing the virus to attach to and enter human cells. The researchers observed that wherever the D614G variant was introduced, it rapidly became the dominant form of the virus in that region. This consistent pattern suggested that the mutation provided the virus with a transmission advantage over earlier strains.

Further analysis indicated that the D614G mutation alters the spike protein in a way that enhances the virus’s ability to infect cells. Although the change is relatively small at the molecular level, it appears to make the virus more efficient at spreading from person to person.

Importantly, while the D614G variant was found to be more infectious, the study found no evidence that it causes more severe illness. Patients infected with the variant did not appear to experience worse clinical outcomes than those infected with earlier forms of the virus.

The findings provided some of the earliest evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was evolving in ways that could affect transmission dynamics. Understanding how viral mutations influence infectivity is critical for tracking the spread of COVID-19 and informing public health responses, vaccine development, and future therapeutic strategies.

This research represents an important contribution to the global effort to understand SARS-CoV-2 and highlights the value of genomic surveillance in monitoring the evolution of emerging infectious diseases.

See entire article at:

Korber, B, Fischer, W., Gnanakaran, S, Yoon, H, Theiler, J, Abfalterer, W, Hengartner, N, Giorgi, E., Bhattacharya, T, Foley, B, Hastie, K., Parker, M., Partridge, D., Evans, C., Freeman, T., de Silva, T., McDanal, C, Perez, L., Tang, H, Moon-Walker, A, Whelan, S., LaBranche, C., Saphire, E., Montefiori, D., on behalf of the Sheffield COVID-19 Genomics Group, Tracking changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike: evidence that D614G increases infectivity of the COVID-19 virus, Cell (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.043.

Bette Korber, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory is also a New Mexico Consortium affiliate scientist.

See the LANL press release here: Newer variant of COVID-19–causing virus dominates global infections