It would be interesting if the primary investigator could pitch in on this finding that those who've received a TB type inoculation which some countries seem to do, shows many to have a less severe pathway through a covid-19 infection. Some university medical centers have actually started to give people above 60 several cocktail vaccinations the young get standard since the 80's, but was not available to those who're now 60 and older.

After reviewing the past 12 to 18 monthly updates, there is never any discussion about the science. Updates seem to strictly focus on adding new team members, posting an update which also doesn't include anything related to the science, and the fact that they intend to increase the work. At about 700 work units per day, how much science is really being done? Have they even discovered anything that looks reasonably interesting or are we just continuing to process work so that there is a reason to keep the lab open? It seems this project is more work for the WCG staff than it is worth. At the next monthly call, would it be possible to ask if anything worthwhile scientifically has come from these work units the past 2 years. I think the PI needs to take some time and really ask some hard questions about trying to continue this research given Brexit, the Pandemic, and the related lack of staff. They don't need the WCG Grid, they just need a few PCs or workstations to do 700 WUs a day. It could fall off the grid and nobody would notice.
Let me update that, this project has been running for 4 years not 2.

Aurum420, you and I have done 50 years of work on this project and what do we have to show for it in 4 years? I'm not saying that TB isn't a worthwhile project but I'm starting to wonder if this particular project is worth the effort. 50 years of 0 is still 0. I'd settle for an announcement of anything interesting just to believe that some progress is being made...

These projects are basic research. It's not very likely that there's ever going to be a TB treatment solely based on HST. But that's not the point. This research helps understanding how TB bacteria work, and by extension, might give insights into how related bacteria work. Including ones we don't even know exist yet.

About 20 years ago, some strange virus was spreading in east Asia. It was crazy dangerous, and lots of researchers started working on it. But then containment measures succeeded in eliminating it, and the powers that be lost interest. Research funds dried up. Vaccine candidates couldn't be taken through human trials, because nobody was willing to pay for trials for a vaccine nobody would ever need. Except, a close relative popped up. You might have heard about it.

Basic research is always a shot in the dark. It's probably a good idea for scientists to learn more about TB, so I'm happy to crunch as many HST WUs as I can get.

We had a quick monthly call with Anna, the principal investigator, today.

1. University of Nottingham is moving to online only classes for the fall term. The researchers are spending most of their time right now adapting their curriculum to distance learning.
2. Christof was not able to attend this month's call because he's heads-down on developing protocols to adapt their lab work for remote learning, social distancing (for work that absolutely must be done on campus), and other COVID-19 related changes.
3. They've created a short project update for us that we'll publish in the next few days. The update will introduce their new team member, bringing the team back up to three people.

Current status of work units:

In Progress: 45 batches (4,500 work units)
Completed: 23,362 batches - 95 batches in the last 30 days - average of 3.1 batches per day