A look at where we started and how far we’ve come following the unprecedented mobilization of the health and research enterprise against a devastating pandemic. 2020 began on an ominous note, as California and the rest of the United States watched from afar while a mysterious respiratory illness made its way through China. Individuals video-conferencing from quarantine, community shutdowns and high-tech contact tracing to find the virus before it could infect someone else: Surely, it would somehow be contained before it happened here? Yet just a few short months later, the virus overtook the United States, prompting major changes to day-to-day life and causing an unprecedented effort by individuals and institutions to help the sick and mitigate its spread. University of California campuses pivoted to deliver remote instruction to students; across the system the health and research enterprise — which began preparing in the earliest days — immediately took on new projects to try and find a difference-maker.