The Science of Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2 )

We can also now visit your class remotely and teach a COVID-19 topic ( customized)

Resources to learn more about the Biology (advanced high school though graduate level)

Terminology: SARS-CoV-2 (Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is the official name of the virus. The disease it causes is coronavirus disease or COVID-19.

OUTSTANDING and clear talk about the epidemiology, molecular biology of infection, health and immunological effects (pathology), and diagnostics- ie the science of COVID-19 for advanced High School and above? Do you agree? Please give feedback in comments

New COVID-19 ‘Citizen Science’ Initiative Lets Any Adult with a Smartphone Help to Fight Coronavirus: UCSF Researchers Aim to Enroll One Million Individuals for Real-Time Epidemiology. Link to press release and link to sign up

Virus Classification on the basis of morphology and replication ... — SARS-CoV-2 virus has RNA and an envelope (lipid membrane), so based on that information which of the above viruses might be most similar to SARS-CoV-2? It turns out there are lots of different kinds of enveloped RNA viruses, so to delve in a little deeper, look at the diagram below which classifies viruses based on a more detailed analysis of their properties. Flu is a *Orthomyxoviridae* type, whereas SARS-CoV-2 is in the virus family *Coronaviridae*

You probably need at least a high school AP Biology background, or College Biology to understand the difference between (+) and (-) RNA but it does make a difference about how the virus replicates in cells.

This diagram shows which parts of the viral genome code for which proteins. The first 2 large genes code for the replicase which both makes copies of the virus genome and makes mRNAs that are used to make viral proteins. The genome is made of RNA and does not go through a DNA intermediate as some other RNA virus genomes do.

Good animation about the flu virus which is different in some ways from SARS-CoV-2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpj0emEGShQ in that it never goes into the nucleus of the cells it infects. If you search the web for virus animations you’ll find many different ones. Watch at least 3 different ones and please tell us what you liked about your favorite one in the comment section and give the link so others can see it.

Very advanced chapter in a book about the molecular biology of Coronaviruses: Fehr A.R., Perlman S. (2015) Coronaviruses: An Overview of Their Replication and Pathogenesis. In: Maier H., Bickerton E., Britton P. (eds) Coronaviruses. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1282. Humana Press, New York, NY

This sites track the genetic changes of SARS-CoV-2 (virus) which causes Covid-19 since it’s first identification. As of March 21, 2020 there are 855 isolates of SARS-CoV-2 sequences in the database. One week later on there are 1542 sequences in the database. I think this site maybe comprehensible for people with a college level Biology understanding. Please leave a comment if you think it is easier or harder to understand than that. Also say if you played with ways to visualize the data.

https://nextstrain.org/ncov?l=radial

Updated graph of covid-19 deaths per 1 million people by country More graphs and discussion of different ways to visualize the data.

Scientist are making fast progress learning about the virus, in large part to the collaborative nature of basic research on many things that we don;t know ahead of time will be so useful. Link to a genetics lecture given by a genetics professor, Dr. Troeml, at UCSD. College level biology background useful for following the lecture given early March.

Epidemiology: the branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.

Disease spread interactive model:
Check it out!! There are sliders so you can change the Population Size, Infection Period, Distance of Transmission, Mortality, and Number of Initial Infections. There is also a graph of the number of infected individuals over time, so you can see the progress of the epidemic as the number of infections steadily increases and then decreases to zero, leaving the population as either uninfected, recovered, or dead.

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