Clinical pathologists, infectious disease physicians and scientists at the UC Davis Medical Center, School of Medicine, California National Primate Research Center and Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases are collaborating on new reagents, diagnostic tests and a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Their goal is to unravel the biology and infectious pathology of this new virus, and to develop means for prevention and ultimately treatment.

The team began by isolating, characterizing and culturing coronavirus from a patient treated at UC Davis, the first community-acquired case in the U.S., with the goal of making diagnostic tests in-house.

These tests will make use of UC Davis’ existing infrastructure for high-capacity clinical laboratory testing.

Widespread testing is crucial to unravel the true prevalence, lethality and contagiousness of COVID-19. Genetic differences between the UC Davis coronavirus isolate and those from other countries or parts of the U.S. may give clues about how the virus has spread.

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