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To feed a growing population, we need to grow more food. But how do we do this sustainably, when agriculture is a major emitter of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and one of the primary drivers of biodiversity loss?

According to Dr Bonnie Waring, the answers may be right under our feet. “My lab focuses on carbon uptake by sequestration in soils, which occurs when dead plants are decomposed and processed into soil organic matter,” she explains. “Carbon can also escape from soils, especially when they’re disturbed, and that happens most often in the context of agriculture.”

Half of Earth’s land surface is used for agriculture, which means the way we farm has a significant impact on both the release and capture of carbon dioxide, the balance of which is critical to controlling global heating.

Dr Waring elaborates: “The 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report stated that if we are to stay within a safe climate zone, not only do we have to stop emitting carbon, we also have to remove some of the carbon dioxide emitted in the past. There are various strategies for this, but at present only one is financially viable: managing ecosystems on land to take up carbon, which is a function they already perform. One of the things the UK government wants to do is reward landowners and farmers for practices that store carbon on their farms. Unfortunately, we have little evidence to say what the best practices are.”

Thanks to a special donation combining research funding and access to a working farm from Charles Rolls (Earth Science and Engineering, 1979), Dr Waring’s team is gathering that evidence. Together with farmers on Didling Farm, they are setting up a major soil carbon survey and investigating the consequences of different land management practices on the amount of carbon held in the soil.

“It’s a unique place to work,” says Dr Waring. “It’s a farm undergoing a transition and using a lot of different practices in the same place, in the same climate. They have livestock grazing at different intensities. They have natural grasslands, and they have woodlands. It captures pretty much all the major agricultural land uses in the country. And because they’re changing some of their methods, we can get our boots on the ground and understand, from the beginning, how changes being made for agronomic reasons might impact the farm’s ability to store carbon.”

“One of the interesting things about doing research during a pandemic is being forced to adapt to huge changes happening all the time,” says Professor Chiu.

“It’s taught me to be very flexible and responsive to what’s going on in the world around me.”

Over the last decade, Professor Chiu’s team has developed a singular capability for human challenge studies, in which healthy volunteers are deliberately infected with a virus and closely monitored throughout its progression. These studies give a detailed picture of the mechanisms of immunity, which aids the search for more targeted vaccines and treatments.

Specialising in respiratory viruses, the group naturally turned its attention to COVID-19 when it struck. But a rapid shift in focus, however necessary, can be difficult without the right support.

“Most traditional grants are aligned with specific tasks and deliverables that force you down a prescribed path,” explains Professor Chiu.

“With philanthropic funding, you have more flexibility, which is critical to getting projects off the ground when unpredictable needs arise.”

This was the case with a generous donation from the Kuok Foundation. Initially given to the team’s research into influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the gift was partly redirected – with the Foundation’s blessing – towards a landmark COVID-19 study.

“We had developed all these human challenge systems for RSV and flu,” says Professor Chiu.

“And when the pandemic hit, it wasn’t clear at first whether we could do similar things with SARS-CoV-2. But as time went by, we saw that we could. Among other things, the Kuok Foundation funded several team members for our COVID-19 study, which was really important. This is specialised work requiring expert scientists, nurses and doctors with precise skills and experience."

The project, which is the world’s first and only human challenge study into COVID-19, is one that only Professor Chiu’s group is able to lead, thanks to an unmatched combination of expertise, experience and networks. Their study is yielding valuable insights, particularly around the short incubation period of the virus and extremely high viral shedding from the nose, and it lays the groundwork for future studies to test new vaccines and medicines against COVID-19.

It shows that experimental infection of volunteers is reproducible and results in no severe symptoms in healthy young adult participants. But why is it so important to intentionally infect otherwise healthy volunteers?

“We’re trying to understand why some people get severely ill, while others have mild or asymptomatic disease,” explains Professor Chiu. “And that’s the kind of question you can’t really explore in animal models or cell culture. You have to look in human beings."