BU CTSI – COVID-19 Responsiveness
& Accomplishments (Archive)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BU CTSI prioritized high-quality translational research, strengthening infrastructure, services, tools, and partnerships to mitigate the public health crisis.
Key Points About BU CTSI Responsiveness & Accomplishments
- Catalyzed data collection/sharing via an EMR-based database using pre-COVID clinical informatics platforms to monitor health information for COVID-19 patients.
- Provided rapid-turnaround pilot funding of $431,562 for 21 research projects across the translational continuum (basic virology, mouse models, PPE 3D synthesis, clinical outcomes).
- Helped investigative teams stand up new workflows, remove roadblocks, and complete regulatory requirements to launch clinical trials quickly.
- Supported continuation of existing studies and implementation of new COVID-19 studies at the GCRU.
NCATS’ Response to COVID & BU CTSI Contributions
- Access to the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) analytics platform unifying EHR data for people tested for COVID-19 or with related symptoms.
- CURE ID, created with the FDA and NCATS, enables crowdsourcing of clinical experiences for repurposed drugs in infectious diseases.
- ACTIV initiative: public–private partnership coordinating the most promising treatments and vaccines; NCATS plays a lead role.
- Trial Innovation Network (TIN) and CTSA hubs accelerated support and rapid implementation of COVID-19 studies.
- RADx initiative: sped development and rollout of COVID-19 testing technologies across multiple programs and agencies.
More on NCATS’ response: ncats.nih.gov
Preliminary Results of COVID-19 Related Research Projects
COVID-19 in Pregnant Women and Their Infants
A BU CTSI grant catalyzed a perinatal COVID-19 program (Drs. Elizabeth Barnett & Elisha Wachman) to understand maternal–infant clinical manifestations and transmission (horizontal/vertical) to inform best practices.
- Retrospective review of 36 symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 positive pregnant women delivering at BMC (Mar–mid-Jun 2020): 88% under-represented minority; 19% hypertension; 37% pre-pregnancy obesity; ~50% C-section; 15.4% preterm; 14% infants PCR-positive.
- Prospective cohort (from July 2020) with biospecimens (maternal/infant blood, cord blood, placental, urine, rectal swab, breast milk) and clinical/questionnaire data.
- Early publications on placental samples; additional manuscript from retrospective review under consideration; data leveraged for larger grants.
“Sneckie” PPE: Quick-Dry Masks for People Experiencing Homelessness
Team (Drs. Joyce Wong & Joshua Barocas) testing moisture-resistant, quick-dry materials and building a device to measure porosity under simulated conditions to guide protection for a vulnerable population.
Impact of COVID-19 on Vulnerable Families
BMC Pediatrics (PI: Dr. Emily Feinberg) is identifying mechanisms by which COVID-19 affects low-income families with young children, informing programmatic/policy responses; themes include food insecurity, increased household conflict, and mixed telehealth experiences.
See the COVID-19 Related Research Awards for how CTSI helped expedite clinical/translational research addressing COVID-19 challenges.
CTSI Informatics Supporting COVID-19 Research
The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C)
Open-science community unifying large-scale clinical data for ML/statistical analyses—enabling collaboration among clinicians, researchers, and data scientists to identify treatments, tailor care, and reduce severity.
Local Resources & Research Networks
Foundational systems supported multiple BMC/BUMC projects:
- Virtual COVID Repository (Dr. Heather Hsu/BMC-CDW & BMC ACO Pop Health): standardized queries, expertise/support; NCATS supplement expanded to Boston HealthNet CHCs and SDoH in N3C.
- Predictive Models of COVID-19 Outcomes (PI: Ioannis Paschalidis, PhD): modeling hospitalization, ICU, intubation, mortality; moving toward prescriptive models to guide therapy selection.
The SCCM Discovery VIRUS Registry
Launched March 2020 to provide near real-time data on hospitalized/critically ill COVID-19 patients. As of Aug 7, 2020: 16,000+ patients across 244 hospitals in 22 countries; outcomes viewable on the dashboard.
Dashboard: sccmcovid19.org · More info: VIRUS COVID-19 Registry
Ongoing work: validating automated EHR data capture at scale to support discovery for future pandemic and rapid response needs.
COVID-19 Biorepository
Institutional resource supporting innovative research across BU/BMC with samples from a prospective cohort and discarded clinical specimens (including COVID-negative controls).
Available materials include plasma, serum, PBMCs, viral transport media (NP/OP swabs), saliva, stool, rectal swabs, urine.
Allocation overseen by the Biorepository Scientific Review Committee (co-chairs: Stephen Pelton, MD; Chris Andry, PhD). Applications accepted on a rolling basis (apply here).
In partnership with MassCPR; access broader sample repositories across regional sites. Learn more: MassCPR Sample Sharing.
Contact: COVIDBiorepository@bmc.org
RNT Support for COVID Research
The Research Navigator Team (RNT) delivered rapid services across studies—e.g., for the Pfizer vaccine trial, building REDCap pre-screening and daily participant pipelines, plus direct scheduling outreach.
For 17 additional studies, RNT facilitated protocol implementation and lab services through the GCRU, and prepared IRB applications to validate saliva for a BU SARS-CoV-2 assay.
RNT Bridging Study Coordinator Gaps
In collaboration with DOM, RNT bridged personnel gaps—supporting eight studies and leading coordination for three (Drs. Ghai, Neogi, Beck). PI feedback cited exceptional coordination enabling rapid trial deployment.
“…a stellar study coordinator and project manager… critical to the success of a fast-moving COVID-19 randomized clinical trial… enabled us to rapidly deploy this trial within an exceedingly short timeframe.”
Shining a Health Equity Lens on COVID-19
Early in the pandemic, the Community Engagement (CE) Program increased bi-directional communication with stakeholders to center equity in prevention, testing, and treatment.
Partnering with Tufts, Harvard, and UMass CE programs, the recurring COVID-19 Community Research Forum (launched Apr 23) addressed timely health topics and equity concerns raised by community partners.
Highlights include 200+ attendees at the fourth forum (“Building an Equity Research Infrastructure for COVID-Treatment”); 78% of first-six-forum attendees learned about the series via email communications.