Christian Bundschuh, Niklas Weidner, Julian Klein, Tobias Rausch, Nayara Azevedo, Anja Telzerow, Jan-Philipp Mallm, Heeyoung Kim, Simon Steiger, Isabelle Seufert, Kathleen Börner, Katharina Bauer, Daniel Hübschmann, Katharina Laurence Jost, Sylvia Parthé, Paul Schnitzler, Michael Boutros, Karsten Rippe, Barbara Müller, Ralf Bartenschlager, Hans-Georg Kräusslich, Vladimir Benes
In January 2021, the monitoring of circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 was initiated in Germany under the Corona Surveillance Act, which was discontinued after July 2023. This initiative aimed to enhance pandemic containment, as specific amino acid changes, particularly in the spike protein, were associated with increased transmission and reduced vaccine efficacy. Our group conducted whole genome sequencing using the ARTIC protocol (currently V4) on Illumina's NextSeq 500 platform (and, starting in May 2023, on the MiSeq DX platform) for SARS-CoV-2 positive specimen from patients at Heidelberg University Hospital, associated hospitals, and the public health office in the Rhine-Neckar/Heidelberg region...
February 23, 2024: Infection, Genetics and Evolution