Corona researchers are very much in the spotlight right now. Colleagues dealing with cancer or diabetes not so much. This could have consequences for other departments.
Berlin (dpa) – The scientific work on the corona virus is in full swing. Within a few months, a huge branch of research has practically emerged from nowhere, which is being promoted with a lot of money.
Scientists around the world want to understand the pathogen, are feverishly looking for medication and a vaccine. However, experts warn that this could put other pressing problems in medicine, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, out of focus.
Matthias Tschöp, scientific director of the
At the beginning of May, Helmholtz Zentrum München, which also contributes to the research on Sars-CoV-2, spoke of the fact that well-known challenges that are life-threatening for many billions of people or that have a significant impact on their quality of life should not be lost sight of.
Basic research of great importance
“Active global collaboration to find solutions to the Covid 19 crisis is important and gives cause for hope. However, it would be risky to interrupt decades of intensive basic research as well as translational and clinical research on the major widespread diseases and thus possibly their Endangering success, “Tschöp warns.
He particularly addresses the fight against chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer, which are still the main causes of death, disability and loss of quality of life worldwide. Today, more than 400 million people have type 2 diabetes. Associated cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in western societies, according to the Helmholtz Center. By 2040, the number of new cancers will increase from the current 18 million to around 30 million annually.
“As far as general research is concerned, the current situation naturally has a significant impact,” says a spokesman for the Max Planck Society (MPG). “All our institutes are instructed to have their employees work in their home office wherever possible.” Research projects with human subjects have not taken place recently.
Clinical studies interrupted
“It will certainly take weeks and months to bring the research operation back up to the pre-corona times,” says the MPG spokesman. Until May, it was therefore not possible to work experimentally in the laboratory. Since then “it has been considered how research operations at the institutes can be slowly started up again” – without endangering the health of the employees.
Clinical trials in humans were almost on hold for weeks in almost all federal states. In some federal states they have started again, others are currently following suit, said Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG), Britta Siegmund. However, it was “always a risk-benefit assessment”. Patients who were included in studies before the corona pandemic remained in the studies throughout and were treated further. “But de facto no new patients have been included in non-Covid-associated studies,” says Siegmund.
There were several reasons for this: Because the logistics did not work across Europe, test medication and supplies could run out. In addition, examinations should have been carried out in the hospital – which was tried as far as possible to avoid.
Corona crisis delays
Problems arise especially in large studies that are relevant for the release of medicines, says Siegmund. “If these studies are on hold for several months now, they will be completed later.” And of course the entire development and approval process is then delayed.
“I personally think that if you have to reduce operations to 20 percent, then the resources must also be distributed fairly – regardless of the research question”, says the chair of the AG Science of the Medical Faculty Day, Christopher Baum.
One cannot decide which research question is more socially relevant. “A coronavirus researcher would have been considered relatively unimportant a year ago,” says Baum. “And then there is such an outbreak situation, and we are just glad that we have basic researchers who have been dealing with corona viruses for years.”
That is precisely why there is a responsibility to preserve the diversity of the research landscape in equal measure and to further develop it as best as possible under these difficult conditions, says Baum. “Diversity is one of the strengths of German research. It is very important that there is no collateral damage and that the question is narrowed”.
PM Helmholtz Institute
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