You react to pain, disease, joy and misery. We all do – we are chemical reactors with emotions and intelligence. The recent pandemic has affected millions of lives globally and hundreds of thousands in Pakistan. It is likely that you may know someone who has been directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19. The body reacts to disease and infection and this reaction can be monitored and traced, recorded and analysed. Our bodies are reactors – we can gain valuable information of how COVID-19 spread in different communities if we study these reactions and build an informed analysis on them.

Dr. Shaper Mirza and her team have recently been awarded 12 million rupees as a Rapid Research Grant by The World Bank and HEC, to conduct a study and dig out epidemiological patterns in how the human body responds to COVID-19 infection. The purpose is to help guide doctors and researchers for better clinical decision making for this disease. Dr. Shaper is the only recipient of this grant from LUMS!

For this project, while local collaborators provide mathematical and computational modelling support, others contribute to patient recruitment, expertise and resources in viral culture and provision of access to demographic and anthropological data. Meanwhile, international partners from US and UK provide HLA typing of patients and consultation on immunological assays. This partnership will eventually help seep findings to inform policies for community surveillance of COVID-19.

This is an active case of scientific investigation. Detective work, critical analysis of data, finding clues and eventually tracing epidemiological patterns of COVID-19. 1400 grams of grey matter wrapped around in membranes, fluids and bone may look quaint next to the empires it can architect and the technologies it can innovate. However, no one can deny the extraordinary things it can help us achieve when we collaborate and combine forces, interests and ambition to create solutions for a better tomorrow. We wish Dr. Shaper well in her project!