Scientists in Australia have replicated the deadly new coronavirus in a laboratory — in what they say is a “significant breakthrough” that may help diagnose and treat the disease.

The lab-grown sample will be used to generate an antibody test that would allow the virus to be detected in patients who haven’t shown symptoms, the Doherty Institute in Melbourne said in a statement Wednesday, local time. The copy would also help in contributing to the creation of a vaccine.

“An antibody test will enable us to retrospectively test suspected patients so we can gather a more accurate picture of how widespread the virus is, and consequently, among other things, the true mortality rate,” said the deputy director of the Institute, Dr. Mike Catton.

Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said they were able to grow the copy of the virus using a sample from an infected patient they received on Friday.

“We’ve planned for an incident like this for many, many years and that’s really why we were able to get an answer so quickly,” said Catton.

The discovery will be shared with the World Health Organization and labs around the world.

A lab in China — where the outbreak has infected more than 4,500 and killed 106 — had successfully grown the virus but only released the genome sequence and not the sample itself, the researchers said.

“Having the real virus means we now have the ability to actually validate and verify all test methods, and compare their sensitivities and specificities,” said the Institute’s virus identification laboratory head, Dr. Julian Druce.

“It will be a game changer for diagnosis,” Druce added.