Cancer Researchers in Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Time to Repurpose and Rethink

Abstract

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic the cancer researchers and patients around the world are looking at a uncertain future. The lockdown that followed the outbreak has derailed all the cancer research activities around the world. Labs have been shut and ongoing experiemts and drug trials have to be halted. It has resulted in to a catastrophic loss to patients and researchers. Since securing grants for research in todays competitive world is hard and there are deadlines to be met so many postdocs and principal investigators around the world are looking at a uncertain future. The pandemic has resulted in diversion of resources to contain COVID-19 pandemic which will lad to funding crunch in near future. In this review we try to address different issues faced by cancer research labs and discuss potential ways to survive this pandemic professionally.