COVID-19

“It's a bit of a dream, but it would be transformative for the way people see vaccines”

Professor Ed Lavelle discusses the challenges of developing mucosal vaccines to block COVID-19 and other pathogens at the site of infection. 

“We’re trying to define the disease at the same time as treating it”

Professor Amitava Banerjee discusses initial insights from the largest clinical study of long COVID to date

Talking T Cells

Professor Sheena Cruickshank on why T cells are the target of a huge range of new vaccines and therapies, including new COVID-19 vaccines 

The parallel pandemics

How restrictions around COVID-19 are causing unpredictable disease dynamics in common childhood respiratory diseases

Is nature healing?

Professor Christian Rutz on a massive study into how the global ‘anthropause’ caused by COVID-19 restrictions has impacted wildlife 

Are defective stocks of SARS-CoV-2 being used in COVID studies and clinical trials?

Public Health England’s Dr Simon Funnell FRSB explains how mutated working stocks of SARS-CoV-2 may be compromising some COVID studies 

Preparing for the COVID cohort

How can HE staff aid A level students' transition to university? The RSB's Bioscience Teacher of the Year 2021 Dr Nigel Francis FRSB looks at the main issues students face after two pandemic-disrupted years 

Working (a synchrotron) from home

During the pandemic researchers have been operating the Diamond Light Source synchrotron remotely, running crucial COVID-related experiments from the comfort of their own homes. The concept is likely to become the norm post-pandemic, says structural biologist and director of life science at Diamond Professor Sir David Stuart.

“We mustn’t spend a long time with a lot of virus circulating among a partially vaccinated population”

The pandemic is entering a ‘danger period’ where increasing immunity – but not total –could encourage the spread of variants that can reinfect people or evade vaccines, Emma Hodcroft tells The Biologist

‘I’m ridiculously positive about the media’s coverage of COVID-19’

Scientific reporting has come a long way since the days of 'frankenfoods' and vaccine scare stories, says Fiona Fox OBE Hon FRSB

 

Lessons from animal coronaviruses

Successful vaccines have been developed for many coronaviruses that affect pets and livestock. Dr Michael James Francis explores lessons these provide in developing a COVID-19 vaccine

"There'll be PhDs written on the psychology and politics of this topic"

A lack of research and old medical dogma have caused deadly delays in public health bodies accepting that airborne transmission of COVID-19 was happening, says aerosols expert Professor Lidia Morawska

Coping with COVID

Laura Bellingan explores responses to an RSB survey that found three-quarters of UK researchers have had to abandon or suspend research due to COVID-19

“If this doesn’t work, I’m not sure anything will”

Professor Sarah Gilbert on the science behind one of the world’s most advanced COVID-19 vaccine trials, and what still needs to be done to prove it is safe and effective