January 15, 2021

meet the scientists involved in the new national consortium to study effects of emerging mutations in SARS-CoV-2

Much is still unknown about how mutations in the virus affect key outcomes such as how transmissible it is, the severity disease, and the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments.

With funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a new national research project, the ‘G2P-UK’ National Virology Consortium, which stands for Genotype to Phenotype, is to study the effects of emerging mutations in SARS-CoV-2 and will be launched today.

Journalists dialled in to this briefing to meet the leading experts from the consortium, and put their questions to the experts about all things mutations and variants.

Speakers included:

Prof Wendy Barclay, G2P-UK lead and Head of Department of Infectious Disease and Chair in Influenza Virology at Imperial College London

Prof Bryan Charleston, G2P-UK co-lead, Director and Group Head at The Pirbright Institute

Prof Massimo Palmarini, G2P-UK co-lead and Director of the MRC Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow

Prof Michael Malim, G2P-UK co-lead and Head of School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences at King’s College London