Identifying Variants of SARS-CoV-2 in India: What Does It Mean For Prevention And Control Of The Pandemic?
Much like other viruses, the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 keeps changing and mutating. In this talk, Chitra Pattabiraman shared her work on SARS-CoV-2 variants that were imported and found circulating in Bengaluru between November 2020 and January 2021. Mutations do not always result in drastic changes to the infectivity, transmission, and immune escape of the virus. However, some changes lead to Variants of Concern that must be treated with caution. Pattabiraman spoke about her research as well as some Variants of Concern that were identified over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the Virologist
Chitra Pattabiraman is an Early Career Fellow at the Department of Neurovirology, NIMHANS, Bangalore. She is interested in viruses that are novel, emerging and/or cause human disease. She obtained her BSc in Microbiology from Calcutta University, an Integrated MSc-PhD in Life Science from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, and was awarded a SERB-Royal Society Newton International Fellowship for postdoctoral work at the University of Liverpool.
