COVID-19 Predictions for 2021 and Beyond
Few would have predicted last January that a pandemic would upend our daily lives. But one grueling year in, UCSF experts have a clearer view of the path ahead.

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Few would have predicted last January that a pandemic would upend our daily lives. But one grueling year in, UCSF experts have a clearer view of the path ahead.
“It’s too soon to know if this variant will spread more rapidly than others," said Erica Pan, MD, MPH, State Epidemiologist for the California Department of Public Health.
Depression is among the most common psychiatric disorders, affecting as many as 264 million people worldwide and leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year. But as many as 30 percent of patients do not respond to standard treatments such as medication or psychotherapy.
A mutated version of the novel coronavirus has been making the news for being more contagious. We asked UCSF infectious disease expert Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, how the new variant emerged, whether available vaccines will still work, and what we need to do now.
A team of researchers has identified for the first time the neurons that are among the first victims of Alzheimer’s disease.
A UCSF pediatrician who is researching methods to control the spread of coronavirus shares why she’s optimistic that schools can reopen safely.
UCSF scientists have discovered a new way to control the immune system’s “natural killer” cells, a finding with implications for novel cell therapies and tissue implants that can evade immune rejection.
A study headed by UCSF and Columbia University highlights the role that frailty plays in this gender gap.
UCSF and BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. today announced a partnership to drive the advancement of academic innovations in genetically driven diseases into potential therapeutics for patients.
A team led by UCSF’s Richard Wang, surveyed the scientific community’s understanding of e-cigarettes and found that, in the form of mass-marketed consumer products, they do not lead smokers to quit.
Patterns of brain activity can be used to forecast seizure risk in epilepsy patients several days in advance, according to a new analysis of data obtained from clinically approved brain implants by neuroscientists at UCSF, the University of Bern and the University of Geneva.
The device, which may be a better illness indicator than a thermometer, could lead to earlier isolation and testing, curbing the spread of infectious diseases.
A group at Gladstone Institutes and UCSF has demonstrated that a large-scale and systematic genetic approach can indeed yield reliable and detailed information on the structure of protein complexes.
We asked several UCSF experts for a personal take on what will convince them that a vaccine is safe.
Giant lizards with superpowered hearts. Hairless rodents that don’t seem to age. Songbirds that babble like human babies. These and other scurrying, soaring, and slithering wonders are teaching scientists how our own bodies work – and how to fix them.
This type of test could be used as a check against possible errors generated by the standard tests that directly detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the scientists said.
Immunotherapies are a promising anticancer arsenal and work by mobilizing the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Currently, however, only a third of patients respond to
In the new study, UCSF researchers showed rapid restoration of youthful cognitive abilities in aged mice, accompanied by a rejuvenation of brain and immune cells that could help explain improvements in brain function.
Children with dyslexia who watched emotionally evocative videos showed increased physiological and behavioral responses when compared to children without dyslexia.
The study adds to a body of evidence indicating that pollution from cars, factories, power plants and forest fires joins established dementia risk factors like smoking and diabetes.
Finding medicines that can kill cancer cells while leaving normal tissue unscathed is a Holy Grail of oncology research.
Researchers found that teens with migraines whose high schools started before 8:30 a.m. experienced close to three more headache days than those with later school start times.
An international research team led by UCSF scientists has shown, for the first time, that gut immune cells travel to the brain during multiple sclerosis flare-ups in patients.
Cardiologist Nisha Parikh, MD, MPH, discusses what we know so far about COVID-19’s impact on the body’s cardiovascular system, from affecting the heart’s rhythm to impairing its ability to pump blood throughout the body.
SARS-CoV-2 uses its distinctive spike to latch onto a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of a human cell. Once there it prompts the human cell to ferry the virus inside. Then, the virus co-opts human enzymes to make copies of itself and spread to other cells.
Climate change will bring an acute toll worldwide, with rising temperatures, wildfires and poor air quality, accompanied by higher rates of cancer, especially lung, skin and gastrointestinal cancers.
Whether a Trump triumph or a Biden victory, millions of Americans may expect a decline in their mental health if they live in states that favor the losing candidate. And the higher the margin of victory for the losing candidate, the greater the number of days of stress and depression for residents in those states.
More than a dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers experienced large, repeated outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses in the last three years, according to a new study by researchers at UCSF.