Repurposing Living Systems to Fight a Pandemic

Scientists rely on synthetic biology and cell-free expression systems for developing novel approaches to combat the pandemic.

Citizen advocates push the pharmaceutical company to examine a compound that has been used to treat certain coronavirus infections in cats.

Machine learning has pegged existing drugs to repurpose for COVID-19 clinical trials.

Gilead’s experimental antiviral drug shortened the average time it took COVID-19 patients to recover in a NIAID-sponsored trial. There was weak evidence that it also helped reduce deaths.

President Donald Trump has touted the drug as a treatment but scientists still don’t know for sure that it is effective in patients. A number of clinical trials aim to find out.

The antiviral disables RNA replication machinery in MERS and SARS viruses. Can it beat back SARS-CoV-2?

Under careful watch of the World Health Organization, doctors will test a range of COVID-19 therapies, including HIV and flu antivirals, blood plasma infusions, and traditional Chinese medicines.

Combining the medications improved conditions in patients with severe 2019-nCoV infections, say doctors in Thailand.