The Nordic EMBL Partnership and COVID-19
Across the Nordic EMBL Partnership, a wide range of projects are underway to help tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Partnership is home to a high number of highly talented young group leaders, recruited according to the EMBL model, who are well equipped to help contribute towards research into diseases and societal emergencies like COVID-19.
Whilst each of the Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes have different but complementary research focuses, the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has undoubtedly become a common theme for all four of our Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes. Altogether, the four nodes are now working on over fourteen projects, with more in the pipeline.
Knowledge exchange and collaboration across the nodes is also taking place, with researchers at FIMM and MIMS sharing data and expertise on the COVID-19 Host Genetics initiative, which is coordinated by FIMM. Other projects include research into the genetic determinants of SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility; the sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome; drug screening to identify new therapies; effective antibody testing; the efficacy of treatments for the virus; and work to understand why SARS-CoV-2 can cause thrombosis in some patients.
The nodes' research into SARS-CoV-2 comes on top of the wider EMBL research projects currently underway, which include the COVID-19 Data Portal and RBPBase.