{"id":4971,"date":"2020-02-24T18:43:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T09:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/163.180.4.222\/lab\/?p=4971"},"modified":"2020-02-24T19:44:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T10:44:32","slug":"coronavirus-epidemic-snarls-science-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=4971","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus epidemic snarls science worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"Embedded<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Like most universities in China, the campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan is deserted.<\/p>\n

PHOTO: STRINGER\/GETTY IMAGES<\/q><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The coronavirus epidemic now racing across China is forcing Jeffrey Erlich, a Canadian neuroscientist at New York University Shanghai, to weigh his science against concern for his staff. Erlich performs animal experiments at a neighboring university; as part of efforts to control the illness, known as COVID-19, officials there have asked him to halt the studies and use as few staff as possible to take care of his animals. But he is training mice and other species on very complex tasks; the interruption could set him back 6 to 9 months. \u201cIt’s really hard balancing the research productivity of the lab and the safety and comfort of my staff,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you’ve invested years of work into experiments, where do you draw the line about what’s considered essential?\u201d<\/p>\n

Erlich is just one of thousands of scientists in China whose work is suffering. Universities across the country have been closed since the Lunar New Year, 25 January. Access to labs is restricted, and projects have been mothballed, fieldwork interrupted, and travel severely curtailed. Scientists elsewhere in the world are feeling the impact as well, as collaborations with China are on pause and many scientific meetings, some as far away as June, have been canceled or postponed.<\/p>\n

The damage to research pales compared with the human suffering wrought by the virus. As\u00a0Science<\/em>\u00a0went to press, the total number of cases had risen to 73,332, almost 99% of them in China, and 1873 deaths had been counted; the specter of a pandemic is still very real. Still, for individual researchers the losses can be serious\u2014and stressful. \u201cBasically, everything has completely stopped,\u201d says John Speakman, who runs an animal behavior lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing. \u201cThe disruption is enormous. The stress on the staff is really high.\u201d But Speakman says he understands why the Chinese government closed universities and institutes. \u201cIt’s annoying, but I completely support what they have done,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Disruptions are particularly acute in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, which are almost completely cut off from the outside world. \u201cI’m working more now than ever before the epidemic,\u201d says Sara Platto, a professor of animal behavior at Jianghan University in Wuhan. But she faces major obstacles: Faculty and students living on campus are confined to their apartments, and Platto, who lives off-campus, can venture outside only once every 3 days. She is working with colleagues in Beijing who are studying the relationship of the novel virus to another coronavirus isolated from a pangolin. But a paper she is writing has been delayed because her notes are in her office and she can’t get back on campus.<\/p>\n

The situation is not much better in other cities. \u201cUnfortunately, the virus is very annoying with regards to work,\u201d says Jingmai O’Connor, a paleontologist at CAS’s Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing. \u201cThere is no one working the collection, no one to sign paperwork so things can’t get done, overseas travel is canceled. \u2026 No samples can be analyzed, all we can do is work on preexisting data on our computers,\u201d O’Connor says. \u201cIt sucks!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some researchers in China have switched from lab work to writing papers and grant applications. The National Science Foundation of China has postponed grant application deadlines by several weeks, giving researchers time to catch up. Online classes, which many universities and institutes have ramped up to keep students on schedule, are also keeping scientists busy. Poo Muming, a neuroscientist at CAS’s Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, says he is teaching daily 2-hour neurobiology lectures: \u201cSurprisingly, there are thousands of people tuning in each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

China’s lockdown is felt even half a world away. Daniel Kammen, a renewable energy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, says it is impeding his lab’s efforts to help set up green transportation projects, including the rollout of electric taxis, throughout China.<\/p>\n

But labs working on the fight against COVID-19 are in overdrive. At Tsinghua University in Beijing, Zhang Linqi has switched from HIV to the novel coronavirus; his lab members even decided to forgo the Lunar New Year celebrations last month. \u201c[We] decided we would celebrate it by conducting research,\u201d Zhang says. The team synthesized and characterized the \u201cspike\u201d on the coronavirus’s surface, a protein that helps it enter human cells; Zhang’s lab has joined industrial partners to develop a vaccine targeting the spike. Countless infectious disease labs in the rest of the world have put their regular work on hold as well. \u201cThe main effect has been the need to triage work, to push other projects to the back burner while we help our Chinese colleagues analyze the vast amount of new COVID-19 data,\u201d says Christopher Dye of the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

The spread of the virus has upended plans for numerous scientific conferences. So far, more than a dozen have been canceled or postponed\u2014not just in China but elsewhere in Asia and Europe as well. Among the casualties are the International Society for Stem Cell Research’s international symposium, which was scheduled for March in Shanghai, and the 2nd Singapore ECS Symposium on Energy Materials in early April. Organizers of the International Congress on Infectious Diseases, planned for 20\u201324 February in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, postponed their meeting, saying the priority for its registrants is to fight the coronavirus outbreak in their home countries.<\/p>\n

Concern is also rising that the epidemic could disrupt the global medicine supply. China and India produce an estimated 80% of all active pharmaceutical ingredients, the raw materials for antibiotics and drugs for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. With many Chinese factories shuttered, stockpiles could run short. \u201cThis is a very acute issue now,\u201d says Michael Osterholm, the head the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, which studies drug availability.<\/p>\n

But Mari\u00e2ngela Sim\u00e3o, assistant director general for access to medicines and health products at the World Health Organization, says the agency sees no \u201cimmediate risk\u201d of COVID-19 affecting supplies of essential medicines. Sim\u00e3o’s team is in daily contact with international pharmaceutical associations, which track shipping disruptions from their member companies. Many companies stockpiled 2 to 4 months of their products prior to the Lunar New Year celebrations, she says. And while Hubei is home to some pharmaceutical companies, far more are in Shanghai and other parts of China that are less affected. But the picture could change if the virus isn’t brought under control, Sim\u00e3o notes. \u201cIt will all depend on how the situations evolve with the outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(\uc6d0\ubb38: \uc5ec\uae30<\/a>\ub97c \ud074\ub9ad\ud558\uc138\uc694~)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Like most universities in China, the campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan is deserted. PHOTO: STRINGER\/GETTY IMAGES    (more…)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,33,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-on-science","category-do-biology","category-lets-do-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2077,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=2077","url_meta":{"origin":4971,"position":0},"title":"Supercharged crime-scene DNA analysis sparks privacy concerns","author":"biochemistry","date":"October 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Consumer genetics poised to enable comparison of DNA evidence to genetic profiles of almost any American of European descent. \u00a0 (\uc6d0\ubb38: \uc5ec\uae30\ub97c \ud074\ub9ad\ud558\uc138\uc694~) \u00a0 \u00a0 The long reach of law enforcement could now extend into our DNA.Credit: Rick Bowmer\/AP\/Shutterstock \u00a0 \u00a0 Genetic sleuthing techniques that led to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays on Science"","block_context":{"text":"Essays on Science","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4963,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=4963","url_meta":{"origin":4971,"position":1},"title":"Scientists question China\u2019s decision not to report symptom-free coronavirus cases","author":"biochemistry","date":"February 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Researchers say that excluding these people could conceal the epidemic\u2019s true extent, but others say the practice makes sense. \u00a0 \u00a0 Researchers want to know how many people with the coronavirus don't have symptoms.Credit: Stringer\/Getty \u00a0 \u00a0 Researchers are concerned that China\u2019s official reports on the number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays on Science"","block_context":{"text":"Essays on Science","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4967,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=4967","url_meta":{"origin":4971,"position":2},"title":"When will the coronavirus outbreak peak?","author":"biochemistry","date":"February 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Officials want to know but predictions vary wildly, from now to after hundreds of millions of people are infected. \u00a0 \u00a0 Officials want to know roughly when the outbreak will peak so they can prepare hospitals.Credit: SOPA Images\/LightRocket\/Getty \u00a0 \u00a0 Coronavirus infections in China continue to swell by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays on Science"","block_context":{"text":"Essays on Science","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3992,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=3992","url_meta":{"origin":4971,"position":3},"title":"China’s CRISPR revolution","author":"biochemistry","date":"August 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Editing of plant, animal, and human genomes has never been easier, as this country's scientists are rapidly demonstrating. \u00a0 FOR MANY PEOPLE, CRISPR plus China equals the biophysicist He Jiankui, who infamously used the genome editor last year to alter the DNA of two human embryos that would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays on Science"","block_context":{"text":"Essays on Science","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3988,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=3988","url_meta":{"origin":4971,"position":4},"title":"The long shadow of a CRISPR scandal","author":"biochemistry","date":"August 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 He Jiankui's controversial gene-editing experiment brought intense scrutiny to CRISPR scientists in China, and they're outraged. \u00a0 As He Jiankui strode to the podium at last year's summit on human genome editing in Hong Kong, China, more than 1 million people watched online. PHOTO: ANTHONY WALLACE\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays on Science"","block_context":{"text":"Essays on Science","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3166,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=3166","url_meta":{"origin":4971,"position":5},"title":"Duke University\u2019s huge misconduct fine is a reminder to reward rigour","author":"biochemistry","date":"April 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 US$112.5-million settlement concerning fraudulent data is a casualty of a culture that prizes impact over robustness, says Arturo Casadevall. \u00a0 \u00a0 Last week, Duke University announced it would pay the US government US$112.5 million to settle claims that fraudulent data were used in dozens of research-grant applications. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays on Science"","block_context":{"text":"Essays on Science","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Xo1j-1ib","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4972,"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971\/revisions\/4972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}