Piecing together what we know of the ‘new #variant’. This has been confirmed by COG-UK (tinyurl.com/ybfsqurf) and PHE (tinyurl.com/yacjerx6) as a lineage of #SARSCoV2 carrying a set of mutations including #N501Y, found in the #spike receptor binding domain. #PHE reports suggest that #SARSCoV2 carrying this variant(s) have been observed at high frequency in recent times in the South of England. At the moment there is no evidence this #variant spreads any faster or any slower. This simply hasn’t been tested yet (and of course will be)

There are reports coming out in the Danish media of novel mutations emerging in #SARSCoV2 in #mink tinyurl.com/y5gbwype

SARS-CoV-2 can infect multiple mammalian carnivores and has now been detected in multiple mink farms to date 👇 Across high coverage #SARSCoV2 genomes isolated from mink @GISAID we pick up unique mutations including one in the #spike protein which has appeared at least five times in phylogenetically distant #mink lineages.

In our @LancetMicrobe paper we report 671 Mtb genomes 🧬from 391 patients with drug #resistant #tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa sampled over 6 years.

We screened for resistance to #bedaquiline, a drug now central to effective #TB treatment.

➡️tinyurl.com/y5zapnbk We found ~4% of patients harboured #Mtb with variants in genes known to mediate #resistance to bedaquiline/clofazimine.

Phylogenetic analyses show repeated & independent acquisitions of resistance variants, including onward transmission of resistant strains across South Africa.

Our paper on the emergence of genomic diversity and recurrent mutations in #SARSCoV2 is now out in #IGE tinyurl.com/yb4mxhes As with many others, we’ve been working hard tracing the evolution of #SARSCoV2 using thousands of genomes 🧬shared on @GISAID. Here's what we found👇/1 Here we analyse >7500 viral genomes from all around the 🗺️ We show that the time of the host-jump of #SARSCoV2 into humans dates to late last year, consistent with estimates by several others

Genetic data shows #SARSCoV2 only recently started infecting us & was detected fast. /2

Our work is now officially out in @MolBioEvol: #Malaria viewed through the lens of an eradicated European strain tinyurl.com/qkqmaxe. (1/7) #published #genomics On our hunt for past malaria we were fortunate to obtain a collection of blood-stained medical #microscope #slides prepared for diagnostics purposes in 1944 in Spain, one of the last footholds of #malaria in Europe. (2/7)