Abstract: A novel transgene for use to produce a coronavirus vaccine is provided. The transgene encodes: i) an RNA polymerase promoter; ii) a 5? UTR; iii) a secretory sequence; iv) a coronavirus spike protein component, wherein the spike protein component incorporates a variant sequence at amino acid position 614 of a native spike protein; and v) a 3? UTR and poly A sequence. A vaccine is also provided comprising the transgene or an mRNA transcript thereof.

Abstract: A method of identifying disease-associated gene variants in a patient is provided. The method includes conducting exome sequencing of a nucleic acid-containing sample from the patient identify nucleic acid variants within the sample; filtering out non-disease-related nucleic acid variants by comparison with known sequence variants from the specific ethnic background of the patient, somatic mutations and common non-disease-related sequence variants; and conducting a comparison of the filtered sequence against a healthy control nucleic acid sequence to identify disease-associated sequence variants. Novel gene variants associated with liver cancer identified using the method are also provided.