First COVID-19 genome type in UAE known

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

The Dubai COVID19 Genome Sequencing Program has unearthed the first type of “viral genomes” affecting UAE residents and visitors with the use of complicated scientific procedures and a highly advanced technology.

“Our first sequenced viral genomes was of the ‘A’ type which is most commonly found in the USA and other parts of the world,” Mohammad Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU)-Genetics professor Dr. Ahmad Abou Tayoun in a remote interview said.

According to him, there are three main types of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID19)-causing SARS-CoV2 represented by the first three letters of the English alphabet.

Tayoun updated Gulf Today on the “findings and conclusions” from the first randomly selected sequencing program COVID19 positive patient on Tuesday.

The program launched last week, is under the directive of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council.

Involved are scientists, researchers and clinicians from the Dubai Health Authority, MBRU and the Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital where Tayoun is the Genomics Center director.

Separately interviewed, Dubai COVID19 Command and Control Center-Scientific Advisory Group chairperson Prof. Alawi Al Sheikh-Ali said the program will not only be beneficial to the UAE which will obtain a clearer scientific knowledge, analysis and a more appropriate direction or approach to the deadly infectious disease.

“The sequencing study is part of the wider efforts that should help with fighting this pandemic. Genome sequencing has increasingly become an important tool for studying disease outbreaks,” stated Al Sheikh-Ali, also the MBRU provost and Emirates Scientists Council member.

Tayoun said derived from the first program participant were “virus genetic material consisting of 30,000 letters or bases.”

“We isolated the genetic material. We used state-of-the-art technology to read the sequence of the virus genetic code. The raw sequencing data is in the form of image files which were then computationally analyzed through complex bioinformatics algorithms, to assemble the virus sequence,” he explained.

The conclusions were compared to published viral sequences primarily from China, USA and Europe.

The team is targetting 240 other patients dissected into under age 40 and above 40 years old, gender, “disease severity, time of infection, among others.”