Laboratory methods behind the polio vaccine discovery In 1949, Harvard scientists established a few tissue culture tricks that not only allowed Jonas Salk to develop the polio vaccine, but also became standard practice when growing polio in the lab. His team was awarded a Nobel Prize.

September 24, 2020 by Gina Misra Read More

Antibody testing for coronavirus: what does the science say? Antibody-based testing may be able to catch positive cases missed by PCR, but it is still not accurate enough to be used as a standalone test. For best results, it should be combined with PCR testing and doctors' observations.

May 18, 2020 by Tony Jia Read More

How genes taught us about the origin of novel coronavirus A group of scientists collected samples from some of the initially infected COVID-19 patients to show its similarities to other coronavirus infections in humans and animals, allowing them to track where it may have come from.

May 5, 2020 by Sonali Verma Read More

Hey, pet owners, are you quarantining your cat or dog? Chinese researchers studied which animals are at risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus and if they can pass it on to others. They discovered that at high levels of exposure, cats and ferrets were more likely to become infected with the novel coronavirus. However, dogs showed no evidence of COVID-19 symptoms or viral carriers.

April 27, 2020 by Jocelyn Solis-Moreira Read More

Are HIV drugs the key to a COVID-19 cure? As COVID-19 continues to spread globally, the need for a “miracle cure” appears more and more unobtainable. This group of researchers found drugs we currently use for other conditions, like HIV, show small benefits in recovery time against severe cases of COVID-19.

April 14, 2020 by Jocelyn Solis-Moreira Read More

Can frequently touching your eye increase the risk for COVID-19? COVID-19 can easily travel from person to person but we currently don’t know all its routes of transmission. A new study finds our eyes carry a low risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.

April 6, 2020 by Jocelyn Solis-Moreira Read More

Novel coronavirus still detected in recovered patients without symptoms In this study, 50% of patients tested positive for coronavirus after recovery in the hospital and two weeks of isolation. They were found to still have the coronavirus in their system for up to eight days after symptoms disappeared.

April 1, 2020 by Jocelyn Solis-Moreira Read More

COVID-19: What it is, how it works, and what we can do to prevent its spread Researchers summarize the current state of known medical and biological information about COVID-19 and discuss ways to control the spread of the disease.

March 27, 2020 by Tony Jia Read More

How effective are travel restrictions and social distancing? Modeling indicates that travel restrictions alone would not be effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, reducing human contact is necessary. Learn about how scientists figured this out.

March 26, 2020 by Erica Curles Read More

How would we know if COVID-19 came from a lab? A group of researchers gathered evidence from previous studies and, using what is known about the virus structure, made the case that the 2019 novel coronavirus was unlikely to have been intentionally engineered.

March 25, 2020 by Gina Misra Read More