Israeli, Czech scientists recreate COVID-19’s evolutionary journey in a test tube

Scientists in Israel and the Czech Republic have recreated the evolutionary journey of the coronavirus in a laboratory, mirroring its progression from the original Wuhan strain to the highly contagious Omicron variants. This breakthrough, achieved through a collaboration between the Weizmann Institute of Science and Charles University in Prague, offers hope for predicting future viral evolution.

The experiment, detailed in the journal Nature Communications, focused on how viruses adapt to spread more efficiently between humans. Researchers simulated conditions of both weak and strong selection pressures. Under weak pressure, multiple variants survived, while strong pressure led to the dominance of advantageous mutations. The team found that starting with Omicron, even under weak pressure, the variant remained stable.

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It took only a few months to make our discovery, but we spent more than two years preparing a journal article for publication, because we had to conduct many tests, including mathematical calculations.

Professor Gideon Schreiber of the Weizmann Institute noted the speed of the discovery, which took only a few months, but required over two years of preparation for publication due to extensive testing and mathematical calculations. He expressed astonishment at finding the "essence of the evolution of the virus" in such a short time, especially given the billions infected globally.

This work builds on previous research by Schreiber's team, which in August 2021 identified a pair of mutations in the virus's binding site that significantly increased its contagiousness. Remarkably, these same mutations were later found in the Omicron variant when it was first identified in South Africa approximately three months after the initial study.

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It was unbelievable. Billions of people were infected, but for all, there was the same result – we found the essence of the evolution of the virus. There aren’t many cases like that.