In December, SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras announced awards of up to $10,000 to several SUNY campuses, including SUNY Oswego, to fund research on how to better detect COVID-19. In the Spring 2021 semester, Dr. Julia Koeppe and Dr. Kestas Bendinskas have been working with students, Angela Wu and Vikrant Jandev, to see how future mutations might impact the effectiveness of current COVID-19 testing methods.
“We are specifically focusing on…mutations that may be occurring at the site where the primers would bind to the PCR-based COVID testing,” Koeppe said. “Because if there are mutations in this site…this could mean the testing would stop working so well because what we’re using to do the testing now doesn’t recognize the mutations. How different can it be before the testing no longer works?”
Koeppe said that the group will later write a paper on how it developed the experiment in the hopes that other universities will be able to use it. She also said that she hopes their work helps them anticipate future actions that might need to be taken to adjust testing.
With news of new variations of the virus popping up around the world, it is no wonder that the team would dedicate their research to making sure the virus will not be able to go undetected and spread at a more rapid rate.
Wu explains there are two parts to the research; the experimental and the background research. In the experimental portion, the team is focusing on predicting how mutations might affect testing efficiency, while in the research they are looking for any information that might help them in their process.
“Viruses mutate, and when they mutate, the primers might not work as efficiently,” Wu said.
The grant application emphasizes the value of the opportunity for students to participate in a live and constantly changing situation, making it a great opportunity for both the students currently developing the process, as well as the other students that will have the opportunity to learn about the research later in the semester.
Bendinskas elaborated on what the opportunity could mean for students.
“We hope to prepare biochemistry majors to be successful when going to work for the biotech industry, [as] graduates of professional schools,” Bendinskas said. “The idea is that they should not be making mistakes like some CDC scientists made in early 2020 when they designed ineffective primers for the virus detection.”
He then explained that the lab will help train other biochemistry majors, and he has hoped that by fall, the lab could be used on campuses across the nation.
“Researching is different from class work…you have to think on your feet,” Wu said. “The professors might not even know what the next step should be. They don’t know what results we should be expecting most of the time.”
Wu is excited to develop skills through this research that she might not have been able to develop in a classroom setting.
Wu also highlighted that the research was about helping people too, and she hopes that their findings will soon contribute to the fight against COVID-19.
Kylie Annable | The Oswegonian
