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Coronavirus outbreak

Prof. Sunetra Gupta spoke of her hopes for a pan-coronavirus vaccine at the European Research and Innovation Days conference. Image credit - European Commission
coronavirus outbreak | frontier research | policy
24 September 2020

We ultimately should be able to make a pan-coronavirus vaccine, says theoretical epidemiologist

The world’s pressing need is a vaccine to fight the current threat of Covid-19, but ultimately we may be able to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine, Sunetra Gupta, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the University of Oxford, UK, said at the European Commission’s annual research event.

CureVac began testing its mRNA vaccine candidate in people in mid-June and will shortly proceed to the next phase of trials. Image credit - Picture alliance/dpa
coronavirus outbreak | health
18 September 2020

‘So far, so good’: The view from inside a coronavirus vaccine trial

Dr Lidia Oostvogels is feeling the pressure.

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems and provided an opportunity to think about how to change them. Image credit - www.pxhere.com/licenced under CC0
coronavirus outbreak | agriculture
15 September 2020

Post-coronavirus, how can we achieve food justice?

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global food system and emphasised its structural inequity – from unequal food distribution to workers in the system going hungry. Experts are calling for a reimagining of the way we produce and distribute food so that everyone can access quality food. Despite producing more food by volume than humanity has to date, millions of people remain food insecure. Agriculture is also a major contributor to environmental degradation and climate change.

During the coronavirus pandemic, railways have been used more heavily to transport Europe's freight. Image credit - Liberaler Humanist/Wikimedia, licensed CC BY 4.0 International
transport | coronavirus outbreak | environment
14 September 2020

Pandemic freight emissions reached 2030 target in just months. How do we make the changes stick?

The pandemic left a visible imprint on car, bus and bicycle use – and at its height brought about cleaner city air – but it also disrupted another, less obvious but highly polluting sector: freight transport. Coronavirus plunged millions of planes, trucks, trains and ships into a massive experiment, disrupting supply chains as national borders closed and industries shut down. Researchers and industry are now looking to see if any of the changes will stick.

Data-sharing can help with the next health crisis but that means privacy and technical issues need to now be addressed, say experts. Image credit - Samuel Gabreil/Pixabay, licensed under the Pixabay licence
health | coronavirus outbreak
10 September 2020

Coronavirus accelerates drive to share health data across borders

Allowing health data to flow more freely between countries in Europe could aid the fight against coronavirus while also help the region be better prepared for future pandemics, but privacy and technical considerations need to be tackled sooner rather than later, say experts.

Artificial intelligence is being used to understand and address coronavirus but the results will only be as unbiased as the information fed into the algorithms. Image credit - Daniele Marzocchi/Flickr, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
science in society | coronavirus outbreak
07 September 2020

‘Encoding the same biases’: Artificial intelligence’s limitations in coronavirus response

As the coronavirus pandemic endures, the socio-economic implications of race and gender in contracting Covid-19 and dying from it have been laid bare. Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a key role in the response, but it could also be exacerbating inequalities within our health systems – a critical concern that is dragging the technology’s limitations back into the spotlight.

Research institutions such as synchrotron X-ray facilities have shifted their work and facilities to help researchers working on coronavirus research. Image credit - Sil.d/Wikimedia, licensed under CC 4.0
frontier research | coronavirus outbreak
03 September 2020

New wave of medical ‘deep tech’ can help coronavirus response – but there’s resistance

The development of new medical technologies based on cutting-edge discoveries has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic and is helping us respond to the health crisis. But for these technologies to flourish, attitudes and scepticism among investors still need to change, say researchers and start-ups.

Special biomolecules and compounds for medical use are being grown in plants like the commercial tobacco plant. Image credit - Pixabay/Couleur, licenced under Pixabay licence
health | coronavirus outbreak | industry
25 August 2020

We can programme plants to grow biomolecules. Is farming the future of vaccines?

On the southern outskirts of the city of Owensboro in Kentucky, US, there is a square, nondescript building. Inside, rows and rows of small plants are growing under artificial lights. This is a new generation biotech venture: a molecular farm. Others are springing up across the US and elsewhere – and they farm vaccines. This means that if we find a coronavirus vaccine that works, their produce could be used by households worldwide.

As countries try to recover from the crisis, the findings of behavioural scientists could help governments navigate tricky questions about transforming society and economy for the better. Image credit: Judith LITVINE/MEAE, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
coronavirus outbreak
18 August 2020

Can the world emerge from the pandemic a better place?

The pandemic has caused disruption around the world, but it could also be an opportunity to make some much needed social and environmental changes as countries try to adapt and recover from the crisis.

The speed and competitiveness of coronavirus research means sex disaggregation of the results – to understand if they are the same for males and females – is not happening, says Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione. Image credit: Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione/Radboudumc
interview | health | coronavirus outbreak
06 August 2020

Q&A: How coronavirus is putting a spotlight on sex differences in medicine

More than six months into the coronavirus crisis, data show that not just age, but also biological sex plays a pivotal role in the manifestation and response to Covid-19, with more men dying from acute infections versus women in the short term. This discrepancy has shined a spotlight on a key theme that has gained traction in recent years: is enough being done to account for sex and gender in disease and medicine? Not enough, says Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, the chair of sex and gender-sensitive medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands and a member of the European Commission’s expert group on gendered innovations.

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