Genomics-Enhanced Rapid COVID-19 Pandemic Response [Funder: Genome Alberta, Alberta Children's Hospital Research]

In just three months, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted global health and economy. As of April 21st, 2020, there are over 2.5 million cases worldwide; at the time of writing 40,000 of those are in Canada. Many more people are expected to die as a direct result of COVID-19, but understanding the spread of the virus will help mitigation efforts. Mutations are common and expected in coronaviruses genomes. We can take advantage of these mutations to track the spread of the viruses in the community, providing vital public health information on the movement and potential sources of disease. At the time of writing there are over 3,095 cases in Alberta. To improve on the speed in generating this genetic information, we will work with the University of Calgary Centre for Health Genomics and Informatics (CHGI) to rapidly generate genetic sequences over 1,900 of these viruses (we expect more cases with time). Meanwhile, we will also validate automated methods to rapidly sequence viral genomes at the Public Health Laboratory on an ongoing basis. This automation process can be deployed in other laboratories across the world. The genetic information that we generate from the Alberta COVID-19 viruses will be jointly analyzed along with 1000s of other COVID-19 viruses from across the world. This information will help public health better understand the dynamics of viral spread in Alberta, so that policies to stop disease spread can be used more effectively, as well as provide important information for diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine development.