The Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) of the University of Zaragoza is a reference, multidisciplinary research center pushing the boundaries of basic science together with technological applications within the field of complexity, computation and biological sciences.
Each year, the Institute carries a series of dissemination activities that include lectures, symposia, seminars, and congresses. These involve our researchers as well as others from the University of Zaragoza and from national and foreign Universities and institutions.
Every two years the Institute organizes an international conference around its research areas. This is the case of 2022 when we will be holding the BIFI 2022 International Conference which will focus around what we could call the Science of Covid-19. As we well know at this time, the subject is highly topical and possibly expected, but given the massive impact to our societies and its relation to the core activities of our institute, it is also natural choice for 2022. We hope this occasion will serve to consolidate knowledge on the topic, bring new insights and tools to it, and also to fill some gaps and open new research paths.
The Covid-19 pandemic quickly became not only a matter of public health. Its quick and aggressive propagation elicited a global response, albeit of different intensity and tempo depending on the territory. Unprecedented restrictions, including travel bans, tight lock-downs and quarantines, together with extensive prophylactic measures had to be put in place in order to mitigate an uncontrolled spreading of a novel virus, and a saturation of nurseries and ICU units. As a consequence of this forced human activity slowdown, supply chains got disrupted and numerous business were, temporally or not, closed, severely affecting the global and national economies. These harsh restrictions in everyday life have also had psychological and social implications, further complicating the situation. With so many human life spheres affected in such a serious way, a coordinated, interdisciplinary, and well-grounded effort comes as compulsory to try to find a way out of this predicament.
Looking at the positives, the mass global effort carried out by the scientific community has been unprecedented, obtaining fundamental insights and knowledge that goes beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. Ranging from epidemic modeling to drug and vaccine development, many scientific fields have thrived during this difficult times creating, what we could call, the Science of Covid-19. Here at BIFI we want to make our contribution to the state of the art of Covid-19 research by dedicating the BIFI International Conference 2022 to it.
