BRIEF—Fiocruz develops a protocol to sequence the new coronavirus

Researchers at Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz), in a partnership with the University College London, UK, have developed a new protocol for the genetic sequencing of the novel coronavirus, the SARS-CoV-2.

The methodology offers extensive coverage of the entire viral genoma, reducing errors that may occur in the process.

In addition, it allows for the sequencing of the entire genoma of the pathogen directly from patient samples, without the need for viral isolation procedures.

The technique offers yet another advantage: it can be used to sequence up to 96 genomes at once, in the same sequencing run, which makes this method both quicker and cheaper.

The protocol has been validated for three genetic sequencing platforms: Nanopore (MinION or GridION), Ilumina, and Sanger.

Due to their relevance for the scientific community, these data have been published in an article on the BioRxiv pre-print website.