Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Duke engineers awarded NSF grant to adapt fast, low-cost diagnostic tool for COVID-19

Biomedical engineers at Duke University are adapting a rapid testing platform originally designed to detect Ebola to see whether it could be of use in detecting antigens to SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

27 Apr 2020

Researchers harness the power of AI to accelerate drug discovery

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to develop, researchers around the world are attempting to find the most effective treatment to combat the poorly understood virus behind this disease.

27 Apr 2020

Consumer beware: Coronavirus antibody tests are still a work in progress

After hearing for months about serious access issues involving tests that diagnose COVID-19 based on swabs from the nose or throat, Americans are being inundated with reports about promising new tests that look for signs of infection in the blood.

27 Apr 2020

Researchers re-purpose cancer-fighting artificial antibodies for COVID-19

Researcher Paula Bates, John Trent, and Don Miller developed a therapeutic drug that could potentially block the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Their research was initially aimed at helping patients suffering from multiple types of cancer.

27 Apr 2020

Rice University looks to ‘trap and zap’ SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater

A team of researchers from Rice University has won a National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID grant to adapt their wastewater nanotechnology project to help trap and inactivate the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), (which causes COVID-19 disease), in wastewater. This could help public health officials deal with the threat of disease transmission through wastewater.

27 Apr 2020

Misinformation on COVID-19 is tied to media usage

People who relied on conservative media or social media in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak were more likely to be misinformed about how to prevent the virus and believe conspiracy theories about it, a study of media use and public knowledge has found.

25 Apr 2020

New antibody test to identify individuals infected with COVID-19 virus

Several tests have been developed for detecting the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but these generally only allow detection of the virus during acute infection.

25 Apr 2020

USask's VIDO-Intervac receives $23 million to fast-track development of COVID-19 vaccine

The University of Saskatchewan's VIDO-InterVac (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre) has been awarded $23 million to fast-track efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today.

24 Apr 2020

Study looks into COVID‐19 preparedness in Michigan nursing homes

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit some nursing homes especially hard - including in the hotspot state of Michigan. Hundreds of deaths of residents in homes from Seattle to Boston have raised concerns about how well facilities are protecting the 1.3 million older Americans who live in them.

24 Apr 2020

Anti-vaccine activists latch onto coronavirus to bolster their movement

While most of the world hungers for a vaccine to put an end to the death and economic destruction wrought by COVID-19, some anti-vaccine groups are joining with anti-lockdown protesters to challenge restrictions aimed at protecting public health.

24 Apr 2020

New genome-editing techniques could make recombinant-protein drugs cheaper

The mammalian cell lines that are engineered to produce high-value recombinant-protein drugs also produce unwanted proteins that push up the overall cost to manufacture these drugs. These same proteins can also lower drug quality

24 Apr 2020

Goblet cells in the human nasal passage may play key role in enabling COVID-19 infections

Two significant international studies involving hundreds of scientists, including a human geneticist at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest that specific cells in the human nasal passage shaped like a champagne glass, known as goblet cells, may play a significant role in enabling COVID-19 infections.

24 Apr 2020

NEC leverages its AI prediction platforms to design blueprints for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines

NEC Corporation today announced analysis results from efforts using AI prediction platforms to design blueprints for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that can drive potent T-cell responses in the majority of the global population.

24 Apr 2020

UAB to join international effort to test drugs for COVID-19

The University of Alabama at Birmingham will join an international effort coordinated by Scripps Research to test drugs for COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

Sweden may reach ‘herd immunity’ in weeks as the country resists total lockdown

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection against infectious diseases where a population develops sufficient immunity to a disease that that infection cannot spread within the group. A population can reach herd immunity if a large proportion has been exposed to the virus. Now, Sweden resisted total lockdown measures, unlike its neighboring countries, while experts believe herd immunity will be achieved in Stockholm within weeks.

24 Apr 2020

Research looks at best ways to tackle coronavirus crisis

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology in April 2020 discusses the most attractive approaches among the broad spectrum of experimental and theoretical strategies being worked on to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

24 Apr 2020

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Whom do we trust for COVID info?

Congress is approving still more money to address the health and economic fallout of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.

23 Apr 2020

Novel method may enable decentralized facilities to deliver faster COVID-19 test services

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 2.5 million confirmed cases worldwide and nearly over 170,000 deaths as of April 21 according to the World Health Organization.

23 Apr 2020

New clinical trial to test two drugs for prophylactic treatment of COVID-19 contact persons

With the stepwise easing of measures in Switzerland, it is pivotal to monitor for any new COVID-19 outbreaks and to contain them in a timely and effective manner.

23 Apr 2020

A new method to deliver therapeutic proteins inside the body

A new way to deliver therapeutic proteins inside the body uses an acoustically sensitive carrier to encapsulate the proteins and ultrasound to image and guide the package to the exact location required, according to Penn State researchers. Ultrasound then breaks the capsule, allowing the protein to enter the cell.

23 Apr 2020