Stanley Perlman’s University of Iowa lab created a SARS-CoV-2 model that uses an adenovirus to put the human receptor for the coronavirus into mice, which then led to ruffled fur and other symptoms.
By Jon CohenScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.Beloved as pets, Syrian hamsters are winning another kind of attention from scientists trying to understand and defeat COVID-19.
Fifteen years ago, scientists found the hamsters could readily be infected with the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Their symptoms were subtle, so the animals didn’t get much traction as a model for the disease. But with COVID-19, caused by a related virus, SARS-CoV-2, the model’s prospects appear brighter.