The webinar brought together expert pathologists, microscopists and virologists who are studying inactivation of virus in cells and tissues for safe handling, imaging the cell biology of viruses and handling virus-infected human tissues.
Invited speakers gave short talks sharing their expertise, followed by a Q&A session to answer questions from the microscopy community.
As the SARS-COV-2 pandemic progresses, scientific focus will gradually shift from frontline testing and tracking capability to studying the fundamental cell biology of the virus and clinical progression of virus infection in human tissues.
Imaging virus-infected cells and tissues with light, electron and X-ray microscopes will play a critical role in understanding the pathogen and in designing future vaccines and therapies.
In this context, it is likely that research and diagnostic imaging facilities will soon face requests from researchers and clinicians to handle virus-infected samples.
It is therefore critical that we understand how to safely handle these samples, and ensure that we protect the UK microscopy community from lab-acquired infections.
