Researchers in Brazil analyzed the growth of confirmed infected COVID-19 cases across four continents to better characterize the spread of the virus and examine which strategies are effective in reducing its spread. [44] A system that checks from a safe distance whether someone is displaying symptoms of COVID-19 has been developed by Urs Schneider and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart, Germany. [43] Although the test still needs to be tested on intact viral RNA from patient samples, it could help relieve the current pressure on PCR-based tests, the researchers say. [42] Simon Fraser University researchers will use their pioneering imaging technology-called Mango, for its bright colour-to develop coronavirus testing kits. [41] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, common human coronaviruses usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. [40] When diseases reinforce each other, they rapidly accelerate through the population, then fizzle out as they run out of new hosts. [39] It's no coincidence that some of the worst viral disease outbreaks in recent years-SARS, MERS, Ebola, Marburg and likely the newly arrived 2019-nCoV virus-originated in bats. [38] An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Colorado State University has used computational chemistry, biochemistry and virology to uncover new information on how viruses such as West Nile, dengue and Zika replicate. [37] David Baker, Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington will speak about how algorithmic processes such as de novo design predict protein structures, protein folding mechanisms, and new protein functions. [36] A research team at Kobe University has developed a method of artificially controlling the anchorage position of target proteins in engineered baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). [35]