A Ticking Time Bomb: Tracing the Origin and Spread of SARS-CoV-2

For years, virologists predicted that coronaviruses would jump from animals to humans, causing new diseases. Unfortunately, those fears have been realized and SARS-CoV-2 now spreads across the globe. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, research on the origins and spread of coronaviruses is taking center stage. In this webinar from The Scientist, coronavirus experts will describe how SARS-CoV-2 came to infect humans. Linda Saif will give a historical overview of SARS spillovers from animals to humans, and Neville Sanjana will describe recent work on a SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant that increases human infectivity.
Topics to be covered
- A historical overview of coronavirus spillovers from animals to humans
- The Spike D614G mutation increases SARS-CoV-2 infection of multiple human cell types