Frontier IP Group PLC (LON:FIPP) has highlighted how the Intellectual property specialist's portfolio companies are adapting to the coronavirus threat.
Among them, Neil Crabb, Frontier's chief executive, said The Vaccine Group is working on animal vaccines intended to prevent COVID-19 and related coronaviruses from re-emerging, or emerging, from animal populations to infect humans again - the so-called spill-over threat.
Amprologix is developing new classes of antibiotics to help tackle another global threat to human health, antimicrobial resistance.
Molendotech's technology to swiftly detect harmful bacteria in water is already being commercialised by Palintest, a subsidiary of FTSE 100 group Halma.
Less directly, Elute Intelligence is using AI to search and compare complex documents to help find the most relevant research.
Fieldwork Robotics is developing technology to harvest soft fruit and vegetables and can help farmers if labour clampdowns become more acute and affect the ability of seasonal migrant labour to travel.
Neil Crabb added there are problems arising from the virus in that funding rounds might be delayed while universities are shutting down non-coronavirus research.
At end 2019, the net asset value of the portfolio was 46.6p, up from 41.4p in June, while cash balances stood at £4mln.