After more than 4 million deaths worldwide, the ongoing vaccination to conquer the COVID-19 disease is now competing with the emergence of increasingly contagious mutations, repeatedly supplanting earlier strains. Following the near-absence of historical examples of the long-time evolution of infectious diseases under similar circumstances, models are crucial to exemplify possible scenarios. Accordingly, in the present work we systematically generalize the popular susceptible-infected-recovered model to account for mutations leading to repeatedly occurring new strains, which we coarse grain based on tools from statistical mechanics to derive a model predicting the most likely outcomes. The model predicts that mutations can induce a super exponential growth of infection numbers at early times, which self-amplify to giant infection waves which are caused by a positive feedback loop between infection numbers and mutations and lead to a simultaneous infection of the majority of the population. At later stages -- if vaccination progresses too slowly -- mutations can interrupt an ongoing decrease of infection numbers and can cause infection revivals which occur as single waves or even as whole wave trains featuring alternative periods of decreasing and increasing infection numbers. Our results might be useful for discussions regarding the importance of a release of vaccine-patents to reduce the risk of mutation-induced infection revivals but also to coordinate the release of measures following a downwards trend of infection numbers.

Powerful new ways to image the internal structures and complex dynamics of cells are revolutionizing cell biology and bio-medical research. In this talk, I will focus on how emerging fluorescent technologies are increasing spatio-temporal resolution dramatically, permitting simultaneous multispectral imaging of multiple cellular components. In addition, results will be discussed from whole cell milling using Focused Ion Beam Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM), which reconstructs the entire cell volume at 4 voxel resolution. Using these tools, it is now possible to begin constructing an “organelle interactome”, describing the interrelationships of different cellular organelles as they carry out critical functions. The same tools are also revealing new properties of organelles and their trafficking pathways, and how disruptions of their normal functions due to genetic mutations may contribute to important diseases.

Powerful new ways to image the internal structures and complex dynamics of cells are revolutionizing cell biology and bio-medical research. In this talk, I will focus on how emerging fluorescent technologies are increasing spatio-temporal resolution dramatically, permitting simultaneous multispectral imaging of multiple cellular components. In addition, results will be discussed from whole cell milling using Focused Ion Beam Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM), which reconstructs the entire cell volume at 4 voxel resolution. Using these tools, it is now possible to begin constructing an “organelle interactome”, describing the interrelationships of different cellular organelles as they carry out critical functions. The same tools are also revealing new properties of organelles and their trafficking pathways, and how disruptions of their normal functions due to genetic mutations may contribute to important diseases.