Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 14, 2003
Canadian Lab Maps Suspected Virus Behind SARS
A Canadian lab has become the first to map out the coronavirus believed to be responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), it is reported in Ottawa Sunday.
A Canadian lab has become the first to map out the coronavirus believed to be responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), it is reported in Ottawa Sunday.
According to a Canadian Television (CTV) report, the advance isbeing called "an extraordinary step" by the World Health Organization.
The Michael Smith Genome Sciences Center, part of the British Columbia Cancer Agency in western Canada, made the news public Saturday. Dr. Marco Marra said the sequencing data would be postedonline so that researchers around the world could use it.
"Our intention is to release the data so that anybody who is wanting to help has the fundamental information that they would need," he said from Vancouver.
"The sequence is fundamental information and should be available for this purpose: for vaccine development, for diagnostics, for whatever."
Dr. Donald Low, the microbiologist-in-chief at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, said the development could lead to further breakthroughs.