Previously-discovered compounds to fight Chagas disease could get now life in the fight against strains of the COVID-19 virus that have become less responsive to treatment.

According to a new study, the COVID-19 pause on student loan repayments impacted college graduates — including Latinx millennials — by reducing their stress levels and enabling greater confidence in planning for the future.

In a paper publishing in the Cell Press journal Trends in Immunology on December 4, scientists and doctors highlight the importance of studying long COVID in the context of other post-acute infection syndromes or chronic illnesses. By analyzing historical accounts of other epidemics, they say, researchers can gain important perspective on the profound effects of these chronic illnesses—with the goal of informing more effective interventions for treating them. 

mRNA, widely known from the COVID-19 vaccine, is not actually a “therapeutic agent,” but a technology that delivers the blueprint for functional proteins into the body so that induces therapeutic effects. Recently, its application has expanded to cancer and genetic disease treatments, but mRNA therapeutics have caused serious side effects such as pulmonary embolism, stroke, thrombosis, and autoimmune diseases because proteins are excessively produced all at once immediately after administration. Although technology to control the endogenous protein factory has been continuously needed, there had been no suitable solution.

Scientists at the University of Granada (UGR) have revealed the real impact of human activities on endangered wildlife, taking advantage of the ‘natural experiment’ provided by the COVID lockdown. The research has been published in the journal Biological Conservation.

SARS-CoV-2 evolves rapidly, creating challenges for traditional broad antibody development strategies that rely on conserved epitopes. By surveying 7,116 published receptor-binding domain（RBD）-targeting monoclonal antibodies, we identify three single monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)—SA55, VIR-7229, and BD55-1205—and one broadly neutralizing antibodies (bsAb) Dia-19, that retain ng (in the ng/mL range) neutralization activity even when their binding footprints overlap RBD residues with mutation rates up to 39%. Notably, the three mAbs above carry ~2× more VH somatic hypermutations than the dataset median. Guided by these observations, we outline two complementary strategies: (1) an immune trajectory strategy that prioritizes higher-maturity candidates, and (2) a viral fitness-constraint strategy suited to upgrading lower-maturity antibodies. Together, these provide practical paths for discovering and improving antibodies against fast-evolving SARS-CoV-2.

As cold weather sets in, viruses such as influenza, RSV, and COVID-19 are resurfacing. Quickly identifying symptomatic individuals is an essential part of any strategy to fight their spread. Yet, traditional thermal cameras, which measure facial temperature on the forehead or cheeks, are easily skewed by airflow, sweat, or face coverings—leading to unreliable readings.

To address this, a team at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) led by Professor Jinyang Liang, an expert in computational imaging, has developed SPIRIT (Single-pixel infrared imaging thermometry), a technology that could change how we screen for fever in public spaces.

Researchers from Japan have unveiled a comprehensive dataset detailing the psychological and social responses of Japanese adults to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanning 30 survey waves from January 2020 to March 2024, the open dataset captures how Japanese adults’ risk perception, preventive behaviors, policy attitudes, views toward foreigners, and psychological distress evolved over more than four years of uncertainty. Published as a data paper in Data in Brief, this resource is now openly accessible to the global community.