​Research News

In Deadly COVID-19 Lung Inflammation, BU Researchers Discover a Culprit in NFkB Pathway

Original article from The Brink by Kat J. McAlpine. September 24, 2020 As the coronavirus pandemic ripped through through the United States in March, scientists at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) and the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) dropped all other research to focus exclusively on the SARS-CoV-2... More

What Sets Off Deadly Levels of Lung Inflammation in Some COVID-19 Patients? (Video)

Original article from The Brink by Kat J. McAlpine & Carlos Soler. September 8, 2020 A team of infectious disease and regenerative medicine researchers at Boston University, studying human stem cell–derived lung tissue infected with SARS-CoV-2, are discovering new insights into how the novel coronavirus kicks off a cascade of tissue... More

BU lab using microscopic ‘lungs’ to study COVID-19 (Video)

Original article from Boston 25 News by Jim Morelli. August 5, 2020 Scientists sometimes use human lung cancer cells in medical research. But there's just one problem with that, said virologist Elke Muhlberger, PhD. “These cancer cells do not act like lung cells,” she said. “They act like cancer cells.” For her research... More

A popular heartburn medicine doesn’t work as a COVID-19 antiviral

Original article from Science News by Tina Hesman Saey. July 27, 2020 An over-the-counter heartburn remedy probably won’t directly stop coronavirus infections, a new study suggests. Anecdotal reports from China suggested people hospitalized with COVID-19 who were taking famotidine (sold under the brand name Pepcid) had better outcomes than people who took... More

The Long Game of Coronavirus Research

Original article from The New Yorker by Jerome Groopman. July 23, 2020 Last month, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke at a biotech conference, where he emphasized how much is still unknown about the coronavirus. “I thought H.I.V. was a complicated disease,” he... More

Laboratory-grown lungs simulate coronavirus infection

Original article from ABC News by Dr. Stephanie E. Farber. June 13, 2020 Previous reports have suggested that the lungs are the part of the respiratory system most severely impacted by COVID-19 infection. In Boston, scientists at the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory have artificially created a lab-grown replica of the... More