The COVID-19 pandemic brought together scientists and experts from various institutions to build solutions to prevent, test, treat, or mitigate COVID-19 disease and the socioeconomic havoc that the pandemic wreaked on us. In this interview, we speak with faculty scientists to understand their COVID-related innovations and how they went about executing or deploying the same.

To examine how COVID-19 affected STEM scientists and stakeholders across India, Monk Prayogshala conducted a survey, which was funded by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance. In Part 2 of the article series, Vedika Inamdar and Shivani Chunekar, researchers at the Department of Sociology, Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai, and Deepa Subramanyam, Scientist E at the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, elaborate on the study methodology adopted and outcomes.

To examine how COVID-19 affected STEM scientists and stakeholders across India, Monk Prayogshala conducted a survey, which was funded by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance. Nikita Mehta and Arathy Puthillam, researchers at the Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai, and Deepa Subramanyam, Scientist E at the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune report on the findings.

As the world focused on developing coronavirus vaccines, a team of researchers from the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar, delved into finding a therapeutic route for COVID-19. They tapped into the rich repository of Ayurvedic herbs and found Mulethi to be a promising candidate. The herb contains an active ingredient that shows potential in alleviating aggressive symptoms of COVID-19. Here is a report on their findings.

Emerging dominant strains of the coronavirus are a cause of concern as they impact the course of the pandemic, prompting scientists to track the mutation patterns of the virus closely. In this collaborative study, an analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 global genomic database revealed the trends of point-mutations occurring in the virus.

Like a handful of other viruses, the novel coronavirus may also be capable of crossing the placental barrier in pregnant women and infecting the fetus. A recent study from researchers at ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (ICMR-NIRRH) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, has examined molecular players in the placenta which may be responsible for allowing the virus to access the developing fetus.

One of the reasons why viral infections can be difficult to treat is the high mutation rate displayed by many viruses, which can sometimes allow them to evade our immune systems and develop resistance to drugs. In this article, Shivani looks into the evidence gathered by scientists around the world on mutations in the genome of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.