High-Dose Anticoagulation Can Reduce Intubations and Improve Survival for Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients

High-dose anticoagulation can reduce deaths by 30 percent and intubations by 25 percent in hospitalized COVID-19 patients who are not critically ill when compared to the standard treatment, which is low-dose anticoagulation.

Mount Sinai’s Arnhold Institute for Global Health Awarded $8 Million to Expand Global Partnerships in Education and Research

The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai has received $8 million from the Arnhold Foundation, enabling doctors, researchers, and students to advance its already-strong base of clinical education programs, training, research, and care services to address the world’s leading health issues and improve global health systems.

Possible new antivirals against COVID-19, herpes

The immune system fights viruses with peptides. Now, scientists have treated animal models of herpes with synthetic peptide mimics known as peptoids. These molecules could one day cure or prevent many kinds of infections, including COVID-19. They will present their results at ACS Fall 2021.

Phage Display-Based Gene Delivery: A Viable Platform Technology for COVID-19 Vaccine Design and Development

Researchers at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) and the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) at Rice University in Houston, Texas, have demonstrated that a technology with favorable biological attributes known as phage display could be a viable platform for the development of new vaccines to protect against COVID-19.

Supercomputers Simulate New Pathways for Potential RNA Virus Treatment

University of New Hampshire (UNH) researchers recently used high-performance supercomputers to identify new inhibitor binding/unbinding pathways in an RNA-based virus. The findings could be beneficial in understanding how these inhibitors react and potentially help develop a new generation of drugs to target viruses with high death rates, such as HIV-1, Zika, Ebola, and SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Woman recovering from COVID-19 shares experience as monoclonal antibody clinical trial participant

When Christina Loville tested positive for the coronavirus, she was terrified. She decided to channel her fear into researching COVID-19 treatments, where she discovered a local clinical trial led by experts at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

UC Davis Infectious Disease Expert Available to Comment on COVID-19 following President’s Diagnosis

Dean Blumberg, M.D., is chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. He has spoken about COVID-19 on NBC Nightly News, NPR, and various additional media outlets. He is involved in clinical vaccine research and childhood immunization policies.…

Blood Test May Point to Patients at Higher Risk for COVID-19 Deterioration, Death

George Washington University researchers found five biomarkers associated with higher odds of clinical deterioration and death in COVID-19 patients. Published in Future Medicine, these findings will help physicians better predict outcomes for COVID-19 patients in the U.S.

ECS Community on the Frontline of COVID-19 Research

In our series, The ECS Community Adapts and Advances, Netzahualcóyotl (Netz) Arroyo-Currás talks about his lab’s challenge as part of the pandemic response of Johns Hopkins Medicine, which is at the forefront of COVID-19 research. Soon after classes went online and labs were shuttered, his team shifted gears to quickly design a COVID-19 diagnostic device to help meet the urgent need to re-open work and study environments.

Tackling COVID-19 with Optimism and Ingenuity

Joe Stetter is an optimist, inventor, entrepreneur, and owner of two small businesses that stayed open through the lockdown. KWJ Engineering and Spec Sensors manufacture essential health and safety sensors with medical and industrial applications. In our series, The ECS Community Adapts and Advances, Joe shares the challenges of doing business “not as usual”, and reports on a research collaboration he mobilized to improve PPE sterilization for COVID-19 frontline workers.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Awards and Appointments

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announces its most recent awards and appointments for the institution’s physicians, scientists, nurses, and staff.

Montefiore and Einstein Test a New Drug Combination to Conquer COVID-19

Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine have begun the next stage of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), to evaluate treatment options for people hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection. The new iteration of the trial, known as ACTT 2, is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

UTHealth is joining forces with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and NIST on COVID-19 search engine effort

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has teamed up with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop search engines that will help streamline COVID-19 research for health care experts fighting the virus.

A Coronavirus Vaccine Is in the Works But Won’t Just Emerge Overnight

Supriya Munshaw, a senior lecturer at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, offers insights on the likely time frame for a coronavirus vaccine, the steps involved in developing one, the most promising candidates currently in the labs of biotech companies, and why, years after the MERS and SARS outbreaks, a coronavirus vaccine still has not been produced.

Researchers Develop Potential COVID-19 Protease Inhibitors

Researchers at UC San Diego recently created a pharmacophore model and conducted data mining of the conformational database of FDA-approved drugs that identifies 64 compounds as potential inhibitors of the COVID-19 protease. Among the selected compounds are two HIV protease inhibitors, two hepatitis C protease inhibitors, and three drugs that have already shown positive results in testing with COVID-19.

Coriell Institute for Medical Research Fills Gaps in COVID-19 Testing Materials Supply

Answering the growing need for additional testing, and in direct response to shortages encountered in testing kit supply pipelines, the Coriell Institute for Medical Research is now offering services to create viral testing collection tubes containing different media and/or buffer formulations, for use in COVID-19 testing kits. Coriell is also exploring the feasibility of saliva as a means for testing for the new coronavirus.

Rutgers COVID-19 Center Names Associate Director for Public Health

The Rutgers COVID Response Pandemic Preparedness Center, which is coordinating the university’s myriad research, public health, and outreach efforts to combat COVID-19, has named Henry F. Raymond, associate professor in the department of biostatistics and epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health, as it’s associate director for public health.

Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals to Aid in Global Fight Against Coronavirus Pandemic

Announcement from the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals of a new initiative that galvanizes its transatlantic network of academic institutions, foundations, and philanthropic partners to accelerate promising, near-term therapies to treat COVID-19 and its complications and battle future pandemic threats.

In advancing its portfolio of 120 drugs-in-the-making at 54 leading academic centers in North America and the U.K., HDI has developed a proven model that has enabled scientists in academia to accelerate their breakthrough drug discoveries toward trials in patients.

AASLD Releases Clinical Insight Guide for Treating Patients with Liver Disease and COVID-19

The American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) has released a clinical insight document for clinicians and frontline healthcare providers who are treating patients with liver disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. The document, which cites recent studies conducted in China, assesses how hepatologists and liver transplant physicians/surgeons and their patients may be affected by the COVID-19 virus (also known as SARS-CoV-2) and provides continued guidance on clinical approaches to disease management.