UCSC introduces new Ebola online tool to assist vaccine efforts

Just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of Ebola in the United States this week – a team of researchers at UC Santa Cruz have created a new online tool for scientists around the world to study the virus in hopes of finding a cure.

“My sister works at the CDC. She was the one who alerted me that this outbreak was different,” said UC Santa Cruz researcher Jim Kent.

Kent came up with the idea of the Ebola genome browser. He took action the only way he knew how, research.

“I heard that news and thought I better do what I can,” said Kent.

Kent and his team worked around the clock for the past week communicating with people nationally and internationally. Although the genome browser was created at UC Santa Cruz, scientist from all over the world will have access to the research.

“It’s helpful for people developing vaccines and treatments,” said Kent.

Here’s how it works: The Ebola genome browser aligns five strains of the virus, including some from the outbreak in West Africa, with two strains of the related Marburg virus. Scientists and researchers can access that data and study the evolution of the virus.

(Click here to view the web portal.)

“One of the better pieces of news about Ebola is that it mutates slowly and so because of that a vaccine really should be possible,” said Kent.

And he hopes that Ebola genome browser could potentially do just that.