On Mar. 19, 2020, Clinical pathologists, infectious disease physicians and scientists at the UC Davis Medical Center, California National Primate Research Center and Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases are collaborating on new reagents, diagnostic tests and a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus. The goal is to unravel the biology and infectious pathology of this new virus, and to develop means for prevention and ultimately treatment.

The team began by isolating, characterizing and culturing coronavirus from a patient treated at UC Davis, the first community-acquired case in the U.S., with the goal of making diagnostic tests in-house. These tests will make use of UC Davis’ existing infrastructure for high-capacity clinical laboratory testing. Widespread testing is crucial to unravel the true prevalence, lethality and contagiousness of COVID-19. Genetic differences between the UC Davis coronavirus isolate and those from other countries or parts of the U.S. may give clues about how the virus has spread.

Culturing the virus in the laboratory will allow researchers to investigate the basic biology of coronavirus — how it attacks and invades cells, and what treatments might work against it.

The UC Davis researchers were able to quickly launch their coronavirus research program because of the existing strong relationships between the School of Medicine, the CIID and the primate center, where researchers study HIV/AIDS, Zika and other infectious diseases.

The UC Davis researchers also plan to develop a model of coronavirus infection in nonhuman primates. Researchers in China have already shown that COVID-19 will infect rhesus macaques, said Chris Miller, an infectious disease scientist at the primate center and professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and CIID. This animal model could be used to develop and test potential treatments and vaccines, Miller said.