Tuesday, June 16, 5PM at the I2SysBio (a joint center of CSIC and University of Valencia that has taken much prominence in this crisis), the Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform (PTI) Global Health of the CSIC organizes a presentation of COVID projects, coordinated and implemented from their research centers in Valencia.
COVID-19 caught us all off guard. However, the scientific community was mobilised overnight on a global scale. Not only specialists in viruses or epidemics, many experts from other areas set out to collaborate, putting their knowledge at the service of a common cause: to know the new virus in all its details and help to confront the disease. The Valencia Region was no exception. From universities, research institutes, technology centres and companies, there has been a fabulous exchange of information to respond to emergency calls from a wide range of public institutions or private entities.
One of the first collaborative initiatives, born in the early hours of the confinement, was the PTI (Plataforma Temática Interdisciplinar) Salud Global of CSIC. With the help of an e-mail list, hundreds of scientists and technologists from all over Spain and also from other countries were contacted. Currently, 15 projects from the Valencian CSIC centres (out of about 60 in Spain) have received financial support through competitive calls, among others, from the Generalitat Valenciana, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Fondo Supera COVID (CRUE/CSIC/Banco Santander) or the PTI Salud Global itself (with the support of, among others, Fundación Mapfre).
At the event on Tuesday 16 June - which opens a cycle of CSIC presentations in various Autonomous Communities - those responsible for these projects will briefly explain their objectives and preliminary results to the PTI coordinators. Topics range from molecular details on the new coronavirus, through genomic epidemiology, epidemiological surveillance in wastewater or new, more effective, rapid and cheaper diagnostic methods, to the exploration of original therapeutic strategies or innovative antiviral protection materials. All of this is an extraordinary example of the enormous capacity of mobilisation of talent and resources by the Valencian scientific and technological fabric.
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