Scientist wins top award for work on Covid

A Dundee University researcher has received a prominent award for her work on the causes of Long Covid.

Dr Merete Long was named one of the best young scientists in her field for her research into why some people continue to suffer after being infected with Covid-19.

She was awarded the British Association of Lung Research Early Career Investigator Award at the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting in London after delivering a presentation on her research.

It examined neutrophils, which are white blood cells that act as the immune system’s first line of defence, and the role they play in Covid-19 infection.

The postdoctoral researcher’s study linked changes within neutrophils to delayed recovery and highlighted them as potential therapeutic targets in Long Covid.

She said: “It’s a real honour to win this award. I was proud to present this work and can’t really believe that I was selected for one of the prizes.

“It’s a huge credit to the whole team in Dundee.

“Quite early on we found that (neutrophils) were doing something, changing, in Covid-19, and tended to be associated with more severe disease. We found that these cells have an ongoing role in non-recovered patients.

“This work can help us understand why patients might be suffering from Long Covid. We hope that it will give us further ideas about what might be going wrong in those patients and how we can treat them.”

Dr Long joined the university in 2019 and works in the laboratory of Professor James Chalmers, one of the UK’S foremost lung experts.