evidence: A team of scientists from Tulane, Scripps Research Institute, Columbia University, University of Edinburgh and University of Sydney analyzed the genome sequence of the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered. "We determined that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes by comparing the genetic sequences and protein structures of other coronaviruses to those of new virus that causes COVID-19," said study senior author Robert F. Garry, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine. "It is very close to a bat virus. The adaptations that the virus has made to affect humans are actually very different than what you would expect if you were designing it using computational models in biological engineering." [...] Shortly after the outbreak began, Chinese scientists sequenced the genome of the novel coronavirus and made the data available to researchers worldwide. The resulting data has shown that the epidemic has been expanding because of human-to-human transmission after an initial introduction into the human population. Researchers used this sequencing data to explore the origins and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 by focusing in on several telltale features of the virus.