LAUSR

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease-19, commonly referred to as COVID-19. SARS-CoV2 was discovered in 2019 and is currently responsible for a global pandemic that has resulted in more than 642.7 million cases and 6.625 million deaths worldwide as of 19 November 2022. However, there have been a large number of asymptomatic cases that have gone unreported, which likely results in an overestimation of the case fatality rate of 1.03%. It is also important to note that many deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 have gone unreported. Since the pandemic associated with SARS-CoV-2 began, countless laboratories around the world have switched their research priorities to actively work on this virus. Much of the research to date has focused on the origin of the virus, its pathogenicity, development of vaccines and medical countermeasures such as anti-virals, immune globulins, rapid diagnostics and detection technologies, surveillance efforts and the monitoring of genetic changes and the emergence of new variants. The latter includes Alpha (B.1.1.7 and Q lineages), Beta (B.1.351 and descendent lineages), Gamma (P.1 and descendent lineages), Delta (B.1.617.2 and AY lineages), Epsilon (B.1.427 and B.1.429), Eta (B.1.525), lota (B.1.526), Kappa (B.1.617.1), 1.617.3, Mu (B.1.621 and B.1.621.1), Zeta (P.2) and B.1.617.3 variants which are being monitored as well as variants of concern which includes Omicron (B.1.1.529, BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, and BA.5 lineages) (CDC, 2019). The current observation of the virus’s ability to mutate and adapt begs the need for enhanced biosafety and biosecurity measures to ensure that the laboratory work being performed does not contribute to laboratory-acquired infections (LAI) or give rise to new variant(s) that are accidentally introduced into the community through a LAI. To ensure this, there is a critical need for laboratories conducting such work to perform risk assessments and implement appropriate risk mitigation strategies along with safe and best laboratory practices leveraging engineering and administrative controls, personal protective equipment, etc. To this end, Frontier’s developed a Research Topic entitled “Biosafety and Biosecurity Approaches to OPEN ACCESS