ABOVE: The viral genomes of SARS-CoV-2 reveal its path around the globe. The circles mark the size of outbreaks in different regions and the colored lines represent which strain clusters spread to those regions. The map includes data collected up to February 15. NEXTSTRAIN.ORG, Leaflet, © Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Several years ago, Richard Neher, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and his colleagues wanted to monitor changes to the flu’s genetic makeup to see if the data would help scientists build more-effective flu vaccines. They developed an online interface that integrated the latest viral sequencing data, analyzed it, and published the results in a publicly available interactive web browser.
“Then we thought, why just flu, why not other viruses?” Neher says. The team built a similar platform to chart the transmission of MERS and Ebola and called the site NextStrain.org. Now, they’ve adapted it to keep ...
