Covid-19 showed us how vulnerable the world is to pandemics – but what if the next pandemic were somehow engineered? How would the world respond – and could we stop it happening in the first place? These are some of the questions being addressed by a new initiative launched today at the University of Cambridge, which seeks to address the urgent challenge of managing the risks of future engineered pandemics.

A platform developed nearly 20 years ago previously used to detect protein interactions with DNA and conduct accurate COVID-19 testing has been repurposed to create a highly sensitive water contamination detection tool.

A new supplemental issue of The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences presents new measures, methods, and data collected during Round 4 (2021 to 2023) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) — with a focus on cognition and how researchers adapted to working with participants as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advances in technology, the evolution of patient- and-family centered care, and infection control challenges—evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic—highlight the possibilities and challenges of intensive care unit (ICU) design. For example, prior ICU design guidelines in 1995 and 2012 did not envision remote manipulation of ventilator settings or infusion pumps, or the unique problems presented by pandemic care. As a result, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) sought to update the 2012 ICU design guidelines. Published in Critical Care Medicine, the journal of SCCM, these new guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations for clinicians, administrators, and healthcare architects to optimize design strategies in new or renovation projects.