SARS-CoV-2 will continue to evolve, making it critical to prepare and plan for new variants. Thank you to all who participated in the registry’s virtual discussion on emerging variants this week. I especially want to thank Drs. Esther Babady, Florian Krammer and Penny Moore for sharing their insights and highlighting the need for continued surveillance, neutralization assays and constant monitoring of diagnostics and therapeutics’ efficacy as first steps when variants arise. Collaborative networks that allow for rapid and easy sharing of data among academic, commercial, public health and government sources supported by sustained and global funding will help scientists become proactive instead of reactive to new variants. These collaborations can be used to respond to other global pathogens, such as HIV, and emerging outbreaks, such as monkeypox cases recently reported in Europe and the U.S. For our part, the registry will continue to provide timely and high-impact resources for the community. While there have been many good and thorough papers about COVID-19 published, the registry curated only those that are novel, high quality, relevant and fill a vital knowledge gap in our selected categories to provide a one-stop-shop of authoritative information of fundamental research on SARS-CoV-2.
How is the genome of SARS-CoV-2 evolving? What mechanism does the coronavirus use to target human cells? How does the immune system react to SARS-CoV-2?
Will serology provide the ultimate answer? Does the existence of the antibody equal protection due to antibody neutralization? How often should patients be tested?
What are the different kinds of vaccines? Do coronaviruses evolve to escape vaccines? What have we learned from work with Ebola virus and SARS vaccines development?
How does a pandemic start? How long will this pandemic last: can data models give us some hints? COVID-19 affects people differently depending on their age, how does this affect transmission? How does social distancing influence transmission rates?
Scientifically speaking, what is a coronavirus? What are the similarities and differences in structure and activities of SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2? What is the PK/PD of Remdesivir?
By Jonathan D. Dinman, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. Dinman is a curator of the registry.