Severe cases of COVID-19 are increasingly being tied to inflammation, a complex immune process researchers are trying to decipher by studying the cells involved.
Why it matters: Pinpointing the cells in the body's immune response would help speed the development of treatments and vaccines. It also offers insights into inflammation, which underlies diseases ranging from cancer to arthritis to heart disease.
Scientists, students, professors and researchers paused their work Wednesday to highlight the racism faced by black people in academia.
The big picture: Discrimination, racism and a lack of diversity within STEM fields have been documented for years. There has been some progress, but it remains a problem: 76% of college faculty members were white in 2017.
