About
Mice are not naturally susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 due to poor binding of the virus spike to the mouse cellular receptor ACE2. We have developed a mouse-adapted strain of SARS-CoV-2 which efficiently replicates in the lungs of standard mice. We are using geneticaly diverse Collaborative Cross mouse strains to produce a variety of models differing in illness severity.
We have also shown that mice are susceptible to several variants of concern (VOCs) which have spread in humans over large geogrpahical areas, raising the possibility of secondary wild rodents reservoirs