COVID-19 Basic Science Prequels

Decades before COVID-19 gripped the world, basic science researchers were laying the groundwork for lifesaving medical and technological breakthroughs now central to the world’s pandemic response. With support from the Kavli Foundation and the Simons Foundation, the Science Philanthropy Alliance has enlisted a team of science writers to explore these science origin stories. Each month, the COVID-19 Basic Science Prequels will unpack the people, history, and serendipitous discovery behind topics that now dominate our daily lives.

December 15, 2021

Seeing the Big Picture: Moving From One Molecule to Many By Jennifer Michalowski

An image of a grid of fluorescent dots titled

November 22, 2021

How Speeding up Science Aided the Fight Against COVID-19 By Susan Reslewic Keatley, Ph.D.

The first 4004 microprocessor.

September 30, 2021

Reading Genomes: The Key to Life and to Thwarting Death By Jennifer Welsh

A photograph of Geneticist Pardis Sabeti working in a laboratory. She is standing beside a wheeled set of shelves holding multiple square containers. She is also looking towards a computer monitor sitting close to the shelves and her gloved hands are poised on a device with a big red button.

August 25, 2021

Seeing Is Believing: Exposing the “Invisible Monster” By Alison F. Davis

July 28, 2021

Exponentially Important: The Scientific Origins of PCR By Wendy Kagan

A photograph of DNA samples being placed in a PCR Machine by a gloved hand.

June 29, 2021

Pandemic Puts Mathematical Modeling Through Its Paces By Yen Duong

A photograph of a series of complex equations written in chalk on a chalkboard.

May 25, 2021

The Arcane Research That Prepared Us for COVID-19 By Mitch Leslie

A digital illustration of a group of T-cells, which appear as red spheres with short, nubby white-tipped protrusions covering their surfaces.

April 27, 2021

Scabs and Failure: Springboards for a History-Making Vaccine By Robert Bazell

An oil painting of Dr. Edward Jenner giving one of the earliest forms of vaccine to a young boy as a woman assists him. The setting in the painting is an antiquarian room with various pictures on the wall towards the right of the canvas and a wooden cabinet of objects towards the left side. Dr. Jenner is a man with brown hair, a white ascot, black suit, and khaki-colored slacks, and is also sitting on a chair next to a wooden table holding a sheet of cloth, two rectangular cards, a glass bottle with a label on it, and a glass jar-shaped container. He administers the vaccine in the form of a needle-like object to the young boy with his left hand and holds the boy's lower right arm with his right. The boy wears black pants and a white shirt with one sleeve pulled back to expose his right arm for the vaccination, an action of which he watches.The woman in the scene wears a black dress with a white apron, a white drapery over her shoulders, and a lacy white coif. The woman is looking down towards and is holding the boy by the base of his exposed right arm as Jenner pricks it with the needle. The painting itself is framed within an ornate gold frame and has a dull gold plaque with black text reading,

March 29, 2021

Harnessing the Power of Evolution in the Battle Against COVID-19 By Marla Broadfoot

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell, colored teal, infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, which are colored orange. The protrusions of the cell are long and thin, while the virus is represented as clumps of spheres joined together.

March 29, 2021

The Vast Viral World: What We Know (and Don’t Know) By Lauren E. Oakes

6 grainy photos of coronavirus samples as viewed under a microscope arranged in two columns. The coronavirus cells vary in shape and size, and the photos themselves are tinted different colors. The top-left photo is tinted red and shows a virus circular in shape. The top-right photo is tinted a light-blue-green and shows another circular virus cell. The middle-left photo is tinted a light grayish blue and shows a circular virus with a small dent on its upper-right side. The middle-right photo is tinted yellow and shows a circular virus smaller than the previous three samples. The bottom-left photo is tinted a light-grayish-red and shows a circular virus slightly larger than the previous photo. Finally, the bottom-right photo is tinted a light blue and shows a larger virus with a faint seam beginning from its upper left side and ending at its lower right side. The cell bends inwards at the end points of this seam, as though the photo of this sample caught the virus in the middle of mitosis.

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