Josep Quer, Sergi Colomer-Castell, Carolina Campos, Cristina Andrés, Maria Piñana, Maria Francesca Cortese, Alejandra González-Sánchez, Damir Garcia-Cehic, Marta Ibáñez, Tomàs Pumarola, Francisco Rodríguez-Frías, Andrés Antón, David Tabernero, Institut Català de la Salut, [Quer J] Grup de Recerca en Malalties Hepàtiques, Unitat del Fetge, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. [Colomer-Castell S, Campos C, Garcia-Cehic D] Grup de Recerca en Malalties Hepàtiques, Unitat del Fetge, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. [Andrés C, Piñana M, González-Sánchez A] Servei de Microbiologia, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. [Cortese MF] Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Grup de Recerca en Bioquímica Clínica, Servei de Bioquímica, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. [Ibáñez M] Grup de Recerca en Malalties Hepàtiques, Unitat del Fetge, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. [Pumarola T, Antón A] Servei de Microbiologia, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. Departament de Microbiologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. [Rodríguez-Frías F] Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. Grup de Recerca en Bioquímica Clínica, Servei de Bioquímica, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. [Tabernero D] Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Servei de Microbiologia, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain, and Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus
COVID-19; Pandemics; Viruses COVID-19; Pandemias; Virus COVID-19; Pandèmies; Virus Virus pandemics have happened, are happening and will happen again. In recent decades, the rate of zoonotic viral spillover into humans has accelerated, mirroring the expansion of our global footprint and travel network, including the expansion of viral vectors and the destruction of natural spaces, bringing humans closer to wild animals. Once viral cross-species transmission to humans occurs, transmission cannot be stopped by cement walls but by developing barriers based on knowledge that can prevent or reduce the effects of any pandemic. Controlling a local transmission affecting few individuals is more efficient that confronting a community outbreak in which infections cannot be traced. Genetic detection, identification, and characterization of infectious agents using next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been proven to be a powerful tool allowing for the development of fast PCR-based molecular assays, the rapid development of vaccines based on mRNA and DNA, the identification of outbreaks, transmission dynamics and spill-over events, the detection of new variants and treatment of vaccine resistance mutations, the development of direct-acting antiviral drugs, the discovery of relevant minority variants to improve knowledge of the viral life cycle, strengths and weaknesses, the potential for becoming dominant to take appropriate preventive measures, and the discovery of new routes of viral transmission. Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS)—Direcció General de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (DGRIS), Catalan Health Ministry, Generalitat de Catalunya; the Spanish Network for the Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD16/0016/0003) from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF; Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Business, grant number IDI-20200297; grant GLD21_00006; and grant PI19/00301 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).