Researchers studying how COVID-19 virus jumps from animals to humans

Researchers studying how COVID-19 virus jumps from animals to humans

(WAM)

Abu Dhabi: Khalifa University of Science and Technology today announced it is leading a team of researchers to work with universities across the globe to investigate how the COVID-19 virus, usually found in animals such as bats, has made the jump to humans.

This research falls under Khalifa University's 'COVID-19 Research and Development Task Force' initiative, which includes multidisciplinary researchers from across the world including from the UAE, the US, China, Singapore and Australia. Collaborators from across the Middle East, North America, Europe, South East and North East Asia, as well as Australia will collect animal samples for the study.

According to Dr. Habiba Alsafar, Director at the centre of Bio technology and Assistant Professor in Department of Bio technology at Khalifa University, the current COVID-19 outbreak is an example of zoonosis, which refers to diseases that can be transmitted to humans from animals.

The disease is caused by a coronavirus (CoV) that is believed to have originated in bats and transmitted to humans. There have been two major coronavirus outbreaks in recent history - the 2002 epidemic that was caused by the SARS-CoV, and the 2012 MERS-CoV outbreak. All three coronaviruses share a common entry point into the cells of humans and