In November 2020, a new variant of COVID-19 was identified in the United Kingdom (B1.1.7). In December 2020, it was announced another variant had been uncovered in South Africa (B1.351). Yet another emerged in January in Brazil, known as P.1. A virus can mutate when it copies itself as it spreads.
In November 2020, Lucira Health received emergency use authorization for the first rapid at-home COVID-19 testfrom the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Erik Engelson, a UC San Diego bioengineering and microbiology alumnus, is president and CEO of Lucira Health, which was founded by a UC Berkeley bioengineering alumni.
In September 2020, UC San Diego students and employees became the first participants of the CA Notify smartphone tool, which works behind-the-scenes to automate exposure notification among people who have been in close proximity of each other, augmenting traditional contact tracing.
Despite the spikes of COVID-19 cases in California, UC San Diego has successfully curtailed outbreaks through a combination of strategic public health interventions driven by the university’s Return to Learn program.
Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $8.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the causes of spina bifida, the most common structural defect of the central nervous system.
How did use of massive tents to enable students to learn outdoors take shape, what technology is available and which classes will be taught outdoors? To answer these and other questions, we spoke with Carlos Jensen, associate vice chancellor of Education Innovation at UC San Diego.
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