One of the Collaboratory’s communications interns, Taylor Fitzgerald, had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Amir Barzin about the Collaboratory-led Coronavirus Variant Sequencing (CORVASEQ) Surveillance Program. Together with Dr. Dirk Dittmer and Dr. Audrey Pettifor, Dr. Barzin leads CORVASEQ, a program that works to sequence COVID-19 samples to identify which variants are occurring across North Carolina and in what proportion. The program helped to identify the first case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the state, and has a promising future of application related to COVID-19 and beyond. In this episode, Dr. Barzin gives an overview of the program’s origins, its greatest findings, how it has changed what we have previously known about COVID-19 in North Carolina, and where he sees the future of the program heading.
Learn more about CORVASEQ and other COVID-19 related Collaboratory projects on the COVID-19 research webpage.