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Upcoming inexpensive assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in less than one hour at points of care or at home should help suppress the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proactive efforts towards the development of new vaccines and antivirals, and the elimination of bottlenecks in vaccine development, will be essential to containing and eradicating future pandemics.
More clinical trial data are needed to determine whether sera from COVID-19-convalescent patients and neutralizing monoclonal antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 antigens can prevent COVID-19 or reduce the severity of the disease in high-risk populations.
In less than a decade, the genome-editing technology now recognized by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has impacted the biological and biomedical sciences widely. What’s next for CRISPR in biomedicine?
Two recent high-profile retractions of COVID-19 papers exemplify that trust cannot be taken for granted. To strengthen it, scientific review will have to become more transparent.
Repurposed drugs, inhibitors of inflammatory cytokines, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and sera from convalescent patients will help ease the burden of COVID-19 on healthcare systems.
Further COVID-19 outbreaks are unavoidable. To detect and suppress them, governments ought to implement a range of public health measures aided by technology.
The world needs mass at-home serological testing for antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2, and rapid and frequent point-of-care testing for the presence of the virus’ RNA in selected populations.
The European Union’s new regulatory framework for medical devices has central implications for the development of new devices, particularly by start-ups.
Progress in fluorescence-guided systems and contrast agents for real-time intraoperative assistance during tumour-resection operations should benefit patient outcomes.
The integration and miniaturization of components in electronic and photonic devices for interfacing with neural tissue allow for ever more precise neural recording and stimulation.
As an intermediary between cells and scaffolding biomaterials, the extracellular matrix secreted by the cells offers challenges and opportunities for the design and fabrication of engineered tissues.
