To fight against COVID-19, research and more research

At the beginning of the pandemic, when it was clear we had to work together to reduce the impact of the coronavirus in society, we decided to donate 5 million euros to the CSIC to work on the different projects of the GLOBAL HEALTH/FOCUSED ON COVID platform, an initiative in which more than 300 research groups from the CSIC and other institutions participate in more than 100 research projects, organized in five multidisciplinary areas: Prevention, Illness, Containment, Treatment and Impact.

Today, just over a year later, we are happy that we helped to drive forward the knowledge of the coronavirus structure and its transmission mechanisms. We are also satisfied that we were able collaborate in the development of three vaccine prototypes, one of which, called CSIC-Biofabri, has recently concluded the pre-clinical phase with very encouraging results and is awaiting to start clinical trials as soon as it obtains authorization from the Spanish Medicine Agency.

CSIC research has also succeeded in developing FFP2 masks based on nanofibers, in a research that has made it possible to market a biodegradable solution, and a very precise serological diagnostic kit that is improving clinical analyses to determine the illness’ evolution.

Within the GLOBAL HEALTH/FOCUSED ON COVID platform, the CSIC has launched several projects such as Distance-Covid which analyzes the impact of mobility on the spread of the pandemic, using data from citizen mobile devices, and adapting epidemiological models. Or the project on nursing homes, which collaborates in establishing censuses, conducting surveys, assessing existing models, and, soon, will analyze data on lifestyle, medication and dietary habits, and their possible correlation with the effect of the disease.

Only by pooling our efforts, working together with public research centers and private companies, will we be able to beat this coronavirus and those yet to come. We are grateful for the plaque given us by the President of CSIC, Rosa Menéndez and, from here, we would like to acknowledge the research center and its teams for all the work carried out during these months to help fight against the pandemic. We are proud to have participated, in some way, in their achievements.