One of the biggest challenges they faced was finding an effective way to share their data and results. Another challenge was making sure their research informed the response of public health officials and healthcare workers to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time on such a scale, science, public health and healthcare came together to tackle a virus that had managed to make its way into almost every country. EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)<\/a> is using its data sharing expertise to help address some of these challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the illness named COVID-19, had never been seen in human populations until this year. It\u2019s part of a known family of viruses, called coronaviruses, and is closely related to the viruses that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), but we know little about its specific features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several things we need to understand about the biology of a virus to help us figure out how it infects people, how it spreads, and most importantly, how it can be treated using drugs or prevented through vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cWe need many different types of data to answer the key questions about the new coronavirus,\u201d explains Edith Heard, EMBL\u2019s Director General. \u201cFrom genome sequencing to protein structures and from chemical compounds to microscopy data, there are many pieces of the puzzle that will eventually come together to give a clear picture of how this virus operates and how it can be stopped. The issue is that the data are coming from hundreds \u2013 maybe even thousands \u2013 of labs around the world, so bringing them together is very challenging.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\nHow does data help?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n