From the Ashes of a Pandemic: Leveraging Omics for R&D

PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world unprepared for a global catastrophe. With the uncertainty of a vaccine in the near future, the pandemic marks the start of a new world that has to co-exist with the virus. COVID-19 has been a wake-up call to the lingering but neglected issues on environmental health and global food security but is also a timely opportunity to rise from the ashes, reboot our framework, and act with resolve for sustainable and resilient ecosystems and communities. The emerging tools and disciplines in the field of omics can be leveraged for a systems-level understanding of biological processes to accelerate advancements on knowledge, innovations, and policies towards a more sustainable utilization and management of resources in this post-pandemic age. In developing regions, omics research centers can serve as a gateway to this technology by providing access, building capacities, and facilitating collaborative and harmonized research engagements.