Professor Earl Brown is specialized in virology and microbiology. His main activities are on viral genetics and evolution, mainly directed at understanding how viruses cause disease (pathogenesis) or become adapted to new hosts; and the mechanism used by influenza virus to control the antiviral interferon...

M. Alejandra Tortorici works as a virologist at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. She is also visiting scientist at the Biochemistry Department, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Dr Tortorici holds a Bachelor in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, and a PhD from the University...

Lise Estcourt is a consultant in Haematology and Transfusion Medicine at NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), Oxford, UK, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Oxford. She is the Director of NHSBT’s Clinical Trials Unit, the Clinical Lead for the National Comparative Audit in Blood Transfusion,...

We speak with Ludo Waltman, Professor of Quantitative Science Studies and Deputy Director of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, on how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way we assess the quality of scientific literature.     What are you working on at the moment?...

Adam Marcus, Co-founder of Retraction Watch and managing editor of Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, highlights the need to be vigilant about the quality of COVID-19 research papers and encourages publishers to publish fewer but better-quality papers.     How many COVID-19 papers have been retracted...

Interview with Dr Akira Endo in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.     Is it still beneficial to look into combining backward with forward contact tracing, as you describe in your recent paper, following the recent developments with...

Interview with Samuel Scarpino, assistant professor in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.     What impact does the news about fresh vaccines for COVID-19 have on the importance of backward tracing?   Samuel Scarpino: With the new vaccines, I think certainly...

Interview with Sara Degli-Esposti, Research Director of the TRESCA project and Principal Investigator (PI) for the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP-CSIC) and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Business in...