NUCATS Researchers Identify First Case of More Contagious Strain of COVID-19 in Illinois

The Illinois Department of Public Health has announced that researchers recently discovered the first statewide case of a more contagious strain of the coronavirus.

The work was supported, in part, by a Dixon Translational Research Grant administered through the CTSA-funded Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute, as well as a NUCATS Supplemental Research Award. The sequencing work that led to the discovery was spearheaded by Egon Ozer, Judd Hultquist, Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, and Lacy Simons. The research team identified the case through sequencing analysis of a specimen from bio-banked samples of positive tests for COVID-19. Read Chicago Sun Times coverage