Scientists have created a synthetic form of the coronavirus using brewer’s yeast – allowing further research to combat the disease.
The strains replicated in a similar manner to natural Covid-19, according to the team from the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Researchers took samples from a coronavirus patient in Munich, Germany, and divided the Covid-19 genes into 14 fragments. These were inserted into the yeast, which automatically combined them piece by piece.
This formed a completed genome – a set of chromosomes that form a microorganism – which was injected into a cell to mimic coronavirus.