Prof. Rob Phillips (Caltech) took the audience through a fascinating journey of viral dynamics in the webinar, ‘Where is Euler Now That We Need Him?’. Prof. Phillips used questions which have arisen in biology and physics to illuminate the current systems of understanding the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. He dedicated the talk to an analogy between the history of celestial mechanics and the history of “viral mechanics”, harkening back to the 1750s when Euler, d’Alembert and Clairaut were engaged in a careful study of the lunar orbit.

IIT Bombay researchers have developed an algorithm which can be used to help conduct pooled testing of samples for COVID-19. In order to validate this protocol – known as Tapestry Pooling – in vitro experiments using synthetic RNA and DNA fragments have been carried out by NCBS and inStem, Bengaluru, and Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, U.S. Further validation using clinical samples is under way.

“ADAAB, the whole world is gripped by coronavirus and most important in the fight against it is correct news and information,” Manal Shakeel, doing her PhD in Biology, tells her Urdu audience on YouTube. She is among the 15 researchers from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, who are reaching out to the vernacular audience with information on the spread of Covid-19, while trying to dispel myths around it.

A team of scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem) and other research institutes in Bengaluru are developing new disinfection technology; efficient sampling and new pooled testing methods; and technologies to screen potential drugs to treat the virus.

"We have formed a group of more than 600 clinicians, neurobiologists, data scientists, cognitive scientists, sensory researchers, and technicians from 50 countries to develop a common voluntary survey to determine if loss or change of smell or taste is a reliable symptom to indicate (Covid-19) infection," Shannon B. Olsson, the city-based American researcher, told IANS.

The study, published in the journal Zoosytematics and Evolution, describes the new species of green pit viper,

Dr. Deepa Agashe has been elected as the Vice President of the Amerian Society of Naturalists (serving 2021-2023). She has been on the diversity committee of the ASN since 2018, and received several national and international recognitions for her work in the biological sciences. 

In other developments, young scientists of the National Centre For Biological Sciences (NCBS) have initiated a series of videos on social media to create awareness about Covid-19 in regional languages.
Manal Shakeel, a

The newly created algorithm can identify individuals who are at risk of contracting the disease from high-risk contacts of a Covid positive person who are not themselves known to be infected, said researchers at the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), and Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) at Chennai.

Four Indian research institutes have collaborated with the Global Consortium of Chemosensory Researchers (GCCR) to collect data via an online survey (http://gcchemosensr.org/) to find the connection between chemical senses and the novel coronavirus. The investigation will determine if anosmia is a reliable ‘early indicator’ of the disease, and when and how the change or loss of sense occurs.