In April 2020, a research team at Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences-MBRU accomplished the UAE’s first full genome sequencing of the COVID-19 virus from a patient in Dubai. Genome sequencing can help trace the origin of infection in patients and develop an understanding of how the virus mutates and spreads from person to person. It is also valuable in developing treatments and vaccines and to develop strategies and actions against this virus.

MBRU aims to fully sequence the viral samples from 240 COVID-19 patients across various age groups and who were infected at different times of this pandemic. They will collect information to understand if different strains of the virus are associated with different levels of the severity of disease.

The genome of the virus causing COVID-19 consists of 30,000 genetic letters. Understanding the strain of the virus that the patients have, can help scientists understand how it spreads.

Read news coverage about full genome sequencing of the COVID-19 virus.