While children were largely spared during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is one of the enduring mysteries of the early years of COVID. MIS-C manifests as a severe post-COVID inflammatory syndrome affecting multiple organ systems and often requires extreme measures of life support. Despite numerous investigations, the underlying drivers of MIS-C for the majority of cases remained unclear.

In close collaboration with numerous laboratories and clinicians across the country, including the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub SF , Baylor, Univ. of Mississippi, Emory, Univ of Alabama at Birmingham, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Univ. of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Univ. of Utah, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Indiana University, Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Vanderbilt, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, Univ. of South Carolina Charleston, Univ. of Colorado, the CDC, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and UCSF, we report a significant breakthrough that sheds light on the origins of this severe disease.


Read the paper here.

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, by Michael Lewis, is a new book that describes the efforts of scientists and public health officials before and during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Readers may be interested in reading the original papers from the DeRisi Lab that are described in the book. PDFs of the original papers, ordered by mention in the book, are detailed below. This includes supporting information and links to online lectures by Dr. DeRisi.
Additional resources are at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.



Chapter 6: The Original Papers and Supporting Information

Papers from the first SARS, 2003
Snake Arenavirus - Discovery and Characterization
The Red Phone: Metagenomics for Infectious Disease Discovery in Humans

A platform for global monitoring of infectious disease: IDseq
Chapter 10: The COVID-19 Pandemic