Our COVID-19 Response and How to Help

I would like to get tested for the novel coronavirus.

We do not offer direct patient testing. We process samples received from local medical centers. If you are feeling sick, please follow guidance from the CDC, your local health department, and your healthcare provider. If you're a UC Berkeley student or staff member, you can find information about testing availability and guidelines via University Health Services.

I'm a scientist looking for COVID-19 resources and ways to help.

Watch UC Berkeley Professor and IGI Investigator Britt Glaunsinger's molecular virology lecture, "Coronaviruses 101."

Browse, download, and remix our free SARS-CoV-2 illustrations.

Struggling through coronavirus literature? Try covidscholar.org, a COVID-19 research search portal. Help improve this tool by submitting keywords and paper summaries.

Check out "SARS-CoV-2 by the numbers," a quantitative summary of key coronavirus facts, available in more than a dozen languages.

View our whiteboard video overview describing CRISPR-based diagnostic tools, which we and others are developing for rapid SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Science@Cal has developed a great resource page with basic information about COVID-19. If you are a UC Berkeley scientist interested in answering questions from the public or developing new coronavirus-related content, please sign up to help.

Browse COVID-19 research funding opportunities here.

Read our Nature Biotechnology paper, Blueprint for a pop-up SARS-CoV-2 testing lab

I’d like to learn more about the IGI’s COVID-19 work.

Learn about our work to monitor and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the UC Berkeley campus community through the IGI Campus Recovery Initiative.

Read about our effort to launch a pop-up, robotic lab to help make COVID-19 diagnostic testing quicker and more accessible in the Bay Area. Get full details and updates on the lab.

View our pledge to share all new COVID-19-related intellectual property.

Watch IGI founder Jennifer Doudna speak with author Walter Isaacson on the PBS show Amanpour & Company to get an overview of how the IGI is working to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Follow our updates on social media and share with others.

I'm a journalist interested in your work.

Send media inquiries to Andy Murdock (andymurdock@berkeley.edu). You may also want to check out our free coronavirus illustrations.

I'd like to support you financially.

Your support is critical in the fight against COVID-19

DONATE NOW

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens in the U.S., there remains a critical lack of testing capability. Testing is essential for tracking and containing viral spread.

We have set up a COVID-19 diagnostic testing lab at the IGI that analyzes patient samples collected by clinical partners. An effort of this nature is extremely challenging and requires staff at multiple institutions, new equipment, new reagents and extensive administrative support.

Looking ahead, we are developing point-of-care diagnostic tests and launching strategic research projects to understand the virus and combat it with new therapeutics.

Contributions of any size get us closer to accomplishing our important goals.

Thank you for your support!

I'd like to see more general ways to help in the Bay Area and beyond.

We've compiled a working document with suggestions about how to support the community during this time. Here are some highlights:

Protect yourself and others by following shelter-in-place and social distancing orders.
Join a local mutual aid network or form one for your community.
Donate blood if you are able. Blood banks are facing shortages.
Become a citizen scientist and play FoldIt puzzles that help uncover the best ways to fight COVID-19.
If you had a confirmed case of COVID-19 and have recovered, consider volunteering for an NIH Vaccine Research Center study.
Do science outreach while you shelter-in-place:
- Sign up for Skype a Scientist live sessions to help school children stay excited about learning!
- Answer questions from the public about COVID-19 and help improve a public health chatbot with Ask a Scientist (FAS) and Jennifer (not Doudna) chatbot (NASEM).
- Edit Wikipedia entries related to COVID-19 to make sure information is accurate and up-to-date. Learn how to edit here.
- If you are fluent in more than one language, translate COVID-19 resources (e.g. Wikipedia pages).
- UC Berkeley scientists can answer COVID-19 questions from the public by volunteering for "Ask a Berkeley Scientist" or take part in science outreach videos. Sign up for both here.

Overview

We have pivoted from genome editing research to an all-out effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19 Research Update: Saliva, New Diagnostics & Therapeutics

IGI Scientists Detect More Infectious COVID Variant in Berkeley

COVID-19 Research Spotlight: Joe DeRisi on Repurposing Drugs to Fight COVID-19

Episode 2: Jennifer Doudna on COVID-19, CRISPR, and Accelerating Scientific Discovery with Michael Milken

COVID-19 Research Spotlight: Melanie Ott on Finding Cellular “Lifelines” for the Virus

Resources

I would like to get tested for the novel coronavirus.

I'm a scientist looking for COVID-19 resources and ways to help.

I’d like to learn more about the IGI’s COVID-19 work.

I'm a journalist interested in your work.

I'd like to support you financially.

I'd like to see more general ways to help in the Bay Area and beyond.

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