GW Wins Contract to Develop Antidote-Bearing Organisms to Protect Against Biological, Chemical Threats

The George Washington University has been awarded a $3.6 million contract to genetically modify commensal organisms to produce antidotes for harmful biological and chemical agents, such as anthrax, Ebola, and even COVID-19.

Trojan horses and tunneling nanotubes: Ebola virus research at Texas Biomed gets NIH funding boost

Scientists have a general idea of how viruses invade and spread in the body, but the precise mechanisms are actually not well understood, especially when it comes to Ebola virus. Olena Shtanko, Ph.D., a Staff Scientist at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), has received more than $1 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore different aspects of Ebola virus infection.

Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Named 2021 Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Award Recipient by the Rutgers School of Public Health

Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, has been named the 2021 Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Awardee by the Rutgers School of Public Health. She will serve as the School’s speaker at their 38th graduation ceremony, which will virtually launch on May 14, 2021.

Shape-shifting Ebola virus protein exploits human RNA to change shape

In a new Cell Reports study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology demonstrate how Ebola virus has found a different way to get things done. The virus encodes only eight proteins but requires dozens of functions in its lifecycle. The new study shows how one of Ebola virus’s key proteins, VP40, uses molecular triggers in the human cell to transform itself into different tools for different jobs.

CUR’s First Virtual UR Exchange Features Undergraduate Work across Borders amid COVID-19

The first virtual UR Exchange of the Council on Undergraduate Research featured many inspirational stories of faculty-student research conducted during the challenges of the COVID-19 environment.

Using supercomputers to combat Ebola

As the world grapples with COVID-19, the Ebola virus is again raging. A research team at University of Delaware is using supercomputers to simulate the inner workings of Ebola (as well as COVID-19), looking at how molecules move, atom by atom, to carry out their functions. Now, they have revealed structural features of the Ebola virus’s protein shell to provide therapeutic targets to destabilize the virus and knock it out with an antiviral treatment.

Deforestation Drives Disease, Climate Change and It’s Happening at a Rapid Rate

Deforestation is not an issue dominating headlines in the U.S. right now, but perhaps it should be, according to UC San Diego research. Deforestation has been linked to both the spread of infectious disease and climate change, and what is most alarming, it’s happening at a rapid rate.

The PALM Trial honored with the Society for Clinical Trials’ prestigious David Sackett Trial of the Year Award for 2020

Each year since 2008, SCT has awarded the David Sackett Trial of the Year Award to a randomized, controlled trial published (either electronically or in print) in the previous calendar year. The 2020 recipient is Pamoja Tulinde Maisha (PALM [“Together Save Lives”] in the Kiswahili language) trial.

Repeated novel coronavirus media exposure may be linked to psychological distress

Irvine, Calif., March 23, 2020 – While government officials and news organizations work to communicate critical risk assessments and recommendations to the public during a health crisis such as the new coronavirus pandemic, a related threat may be emerging, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine: psychological distress resulting from repeated media exposure to the crisis.

Notre Dame experts on coronavirus: limitations of WHO, cultural implications and similarities to polio

Dr. Bernard Nahlen, director of Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health and Catherine Bolten, associate professor of anthropology and peace studies, provide insight into aspects of how the COVID-19 epidemic has unfolded, as health officials brace for the virus to…

Researchers Show How Ebola Virus Hijacks Host Lipids

Robert Stahelin studies some of the world’s deadliest viruses. Filoviruses, including Ebola virus and Marburg virus, cause viral hemorrhagic fever with high fatality rates. Stahelin, professor at Purdue University, examines how these viruses take advantage of human host cells.

Texas Biomed continues testing Ebola therapies and vaccines showing promise in outbreak areas

In mid-August 2019, human clinical trials were halted in the current Ebola epidemic that has claimed more than 2,100 lives in Africa. The findings resulted in the discontinuation of two of the drugs in the trial. Future patients will be randomly assigned to receive either REGN-EB3 (Regeneron) or mAb114 (Ridgeback Biotherapeutics) in an extension phase of the study. Texas Biomedical Research Institute scientists in the Institute’s Biosafety Level 4 contract research program conducted preclinical testing of several of the compounds in the trial, working with Regeneron and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).