what are the research going on for corona virus?
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Evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski at Michigan State University spends a lot of time thinking about how microbes grow. Since 1988, his team has watched populations of Escherichia coli bacteria grow and evolve in the lab through more than 73,000 generations. So when cases of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, appeared in the United States, he knew to expect exponential growth—these first cases were just a hint of what was to come.
This week, as research institutions around the world brace for a surge in COVID-19 cases and consider their staff and students’ roles in slowing the virus’ spread, Lenski decided to freeze his bacteria and pause the 32-year experiment. “I didn’t want people responsible for doing this daily work [of maintaining the bacteria] to feel a pressure to come in when they might not be feeling well,” he says. This is “a tiny perturbation” in the scheme of the experiment, which can simply be resumed by unfreezing the bacteria. But that disruption is itself the tip of an iceberg. Countless labs in a variety of research fields are reconsidering their planned studies—and not all projects can be easily put on ice.