A team of researchers with members from the Gladstone Institute and Curative Inc. has uncovered new attributes of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant that could explain why it is so much more transmissible than other variants of the virus. In their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group used virus-like particles (VLPs) to study the assembly and neutralization capabilities of the omicron variant.