Most of us are focused on keeping as far away from the coronavirus as possible, wearing masks, bolstering our immune systems, and certainly not inviting in the front door. But Dr. Colleen Jonsson, director of the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), and a UTHSC professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, actually has to keep the virus under her roof. Or at least under the roof of her laboratory.
“We focus on looking at the biology of the virus,” she says. “We’re working in the biosafety level three lab to see how the virus grows, how it replicates and what it might do biologically if it’s changed at all. That’s been the major focus in our lab. And more recently, we’re trying to understand how these breakthrough infections occur.”
Part of that includes testing small molecules developed in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to discover if they can interfere with the virus’ ability to replicate. Computer models can suggest what sorts of molecules can do that, but it’s up to Jonsson’s lab to test the best candidates against the virus itself, in vitro. “We did this with the Delta variant first, but Omicron begs the same questions,” she says. “So, we’re very interested in trying to understand how the virus circumvents the vaccines.”
We take the existence of such variants for granted now, thanks to reports of how transmissible and how deadly they’re likely to be. But just characterizing those variants requires hours, days, and weeks of laboratory work by researchers like Jonsson and her staff.
“There were hundreds of variants circulating in the first year,” she says. “Literally hundreds. What’s interesting is, over time now, we have these dominant variants. Most of the viruses were Delta for some time, and now they’re all Omicron. So we’re not seeing the same level of variation that we did in the first year. That in itself is interesting, in how the virus has evolved.”
In other words, the more successful variants, like Omicron, have pushed out other competitors. “In the beginning, we saw many, many, many different types of variants here in Memphis,” she notes. “They were reflective of what was happening globally. It wasn’t anything unique, it was just reflecting society at large.”
Now, there’s a glimmer of hope in the fact that Omicron has been so successful, evolutionarily speaking. “The best example of that is, it drove out Delta,” she says. “Delta had a slightly higher pathogenicity than Omicron, as we currently understand it. But that doesn’t mean that the virus is less virulent. So, for people who have underlying conditions, and especially if they’re unvaccinated, they’re going to have a more difficult time. So what does the future hold? That’s the million dollar question, right? But I think we need to prepare for the virus to be endemic. No one knows when we’re going to go from the pandemic to an endemic strain, but the Omicron is certainly a good candidate for being an endemic strain, unless another strain appears in the next few months.”
In the meantime, she says, the best thing to do is to attend to your own biosafety. “Stay positive and wear a mask!” she says. “Seriously, the mask does so much. Wearing the KN95 is a good tool.”
