Directorate-General for Research & Innovation logo Horizon: the EU Research & Innovation magazine | European Commission logo
Receive our editor’s picks

Health

Data on the impact of delaying the second dose of mRNA vaccines is still missing, says Mariola Fotin-Mleczek, chief technology officer of CureVac, which is in the late stages of developing a vaccine using this technology. Image credit - U.S. Secretary of Defense/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>
coronavirus outbreak | health
22 January 2021

Five things you need to know about: Delaying the gap between Covid-19 vaccine doses

As the first coronavirus vaccines started to be rolled out at the end of a tumultuous 2020, UK officials unexpectedly endorsed stretching the gap between the first and second vaccine dose by up to three months – an approach also considered by other countries.

A piece of the lung's airway wall. Researchers are putting together a 'cell atlas' of the human lung to better understand lung disease. Image credit - Prof. Wim Timens, University Medical Center Groningen
health
07 January 2021

In a picture: The quest to map all the cell types in a human lung

Professor Martijn Nawijn, an immunologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, tells Horizon about his quest to map every cell in a healthy human lung.  He says this work should help to understand more about the causes of lung disease - which is comparatively understudied - and should lead to new therapies in the next 15 to 20 years.

With a 2020 that focused on coronavirus, we asked some of our interviewees from the year what they expect to see happen in their scientific field in 2021. Image credit - Gabriella Clare Marino/Unsplash
health | coronavirus outbreak | environment
04 January 2021

2021: Beyond coronavirus - what’s in store for science in the year ahead?

There was one science story that dominated 2020 and coronavirus is likely to remain a dominant theme in 2021. But from vaccine rollout to lessons for future pandemics and – that other big challenge that we’re facing – climate change, how will the year in science play out? We asked a selection of our interviewees about lessons from 2020 and what needs to happen in their fields in the coming year.

coronavirus outbreak | health
18 December 2020

PCR, antigen and antibody: Five things to know about coronavirus tests

To diagnose and contain the spread of coronavirus, testing is critical. There are two types of Covid-19 tests — those that are designed to detect whether you have the infection now, or those crafted to check whether you have been previously infected by the virus — SARS-CoV-2 — that causes the disease. Like any other product these tests have varying degrees of accuracy and reliability, and can be used to achieve different aims.

environment | health | space | coronavirus outbreak
17 December 2020

Twenty surprising scientific facts we learned in 2020

From corals bunkering down in deeper waters to wait out climate change stress, to how vaccines can boost our immune system beyond a specific disease – here are the 20 most surprising scientific facts that we discovered this year. 

The SARS-CoV-2 virus binds with human cells through its spike protein and researchers have recently discovered that it does this in two different ways. Image credit - rawpixel.com/ CC0 1.0
interview | coronavirus outbreak | health | frontier research
15 December 2020

Q&A: How Covid-19 hijacks human cells

The virus that causes Covid-19 hijacks human cells by exploiting a ‘doorway’ that is potentially also used by other deadly viruses such as HIV, dengue and Ebola, according to recent research that may help to explain why the coronavirus is so highly infectious to a wide range of organs in the body. Dr Yohei Yamauchi, a viral cell biologist at the University of Bristol, UK, who led the research, believes that the finding could not only lead to new drugs against Covid-19, but other anti-viral treatments that could be used to save patients’ lives in future pandemics. 

It’s normal for people to experience fever, fatigue or pain at the site of the injection in the first one or two days after the vaccine. Image credit - pexels.com/Gustavo Fring, licenced under pexels licence
coronavirus outbreak | health
11 December 2020

Five things you need to know about: mRNA vaccine safety

The world’s first mRNA vaccine has begun its rollout after being produced at unprecedented speed as part of the global effort to end the Covid-19 pandemic. A second one is hot on its heels. The two – one made by Pfizer/BioNTech and the other by Moderna – mark the first time this vaccine technology has been approved for use.

Some 95% of people have a gene variant that affects their response to at least one drug. Image credit - Banc d'Imatges Infermeres/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
health
25 November 2020

The genetics of side-effects

Henk-Jan Guchelaar knows all too well the serious problems that the side-effects of medication can cause. As a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he has spent the last two decades trying to get the link between medicine and our genes recognised more widely. 

Vaccines can train our innate immune system. Scientists like Christine Stabell Benn are now studying whether a TB vaccine confers protection against Covid-19. Image credit - Lone Morch
interview | health | coronavirus outbreak | frontier research
25 November 2020

Q&A: How vaccines can strengthen immune response beyond a specific disease

Live vaccines can give health effects beyond just protecting us from a specific disease and may even help us combat other infections such as Covid-19, according to Christine Stabell Benn, a professor in global health at the University of Southern Denmark.

People’s willingness to have a vaccine changes depending on how at risk they feel, says anthropologist Heidi Larson. Image credit - RF._.studio/Pexels, licensed under the Pexels licence
coronavirus outbreak | health
16 November 2020

Q&A: Talking about the ‘race’ for a coronavirus vaccine could reduce public confidence

Efforts to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 with a vaccine could be hampered by low levels of confidence in immunisation programs in some European countries, warns Professor Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project and an anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in the UK.

Pages