Martha Nelson of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases talks about the need to balance data sharing and patient privacy concerns when tracking the spread of variants.

A treatment of two monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 is ninefold less effective in the lab against the B.1.351 variant than against the dominant version of the virus.

Engineered viruses that don’t replicate provide a tractable model for scientists to safely study SARS-CoV-2, including research into vaccine efficacy and emerging variants.

B.1.525 shares a mutation with the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa that seems to allow the virus to dodge the immune system.

Facing new variants of SARS-CoV-2, some vaccines may offer more robust protection or be more easily redesigned to target them.

With many millions of people waiting several weeks to receive a second COVID-19 vaccine dose in some countries, experts consider the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could evolve vaccine resistance.

Here’s our brief guide to the most noteworthy mutations in the novel coronavirus.

It’s too early to know whether the L452R version of SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious like the B.1.1.7 UK variant that is also spreading around the US.

From new treatments to an investigation into the virus’s origins, here are some of the developments we can expect this year.