In this first episode in a new podcast series from the GTEC on pandemic preparedness, Tao Dong, Professor of Immunology at the University of Oxford, and fellow GTEC member Antonio Bertoletti, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Duke–NUS Medical School, Singapore, discuss their experience of research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our experts provide an overview of how the pandemic unfolded in their respective locations. Professors Dong and Bertoletti discuss the impact of the coronavirus disease outbreak on the research community and highlight the importance of T cells in understanding more about COVID-19 immunology. Our experts reveal what this pandemic has taught us and suggest best practices when it comes to preparing for future pandemics.

This podcast was developed by the Global T cell Expert Consortium (GTEC), an initiative set up to bring together experts in T cells, vaccines, immunology and public health worldwide, with the aim of becoming the leading voice in T cell research during and beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GTEC will educate on T cells and vaccine development through the release of publicly available educational content and will foster collaborative research efforts to address the unmet needs and unanswered questions in T cell research and vaccinology. This initiative is sponsored by Oxford Immunotec.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly changing situation: the content of this podcast was correct at time of recording in February 2021.