Research News
In It Together: Interview with Dr. Davey
Original article from WGBH by Arun Rath. June 2, 2020 Host Arun Rath spoke with Dr. Chris Gill from Boston University's School of Public Health about weighing risk when it comes to transmission of the coronavirus and resuming daily activities. The conversation is held in the context of recent protests across... More
Scientists put survivors’ blood plasma to the test
Original article from Science Magazine by Kai Kupferschmidt. May 29, 2020 On 13 March, with the COVID-19 pandemic exploding and drugs elusive, Arturo Casadevall published what he considers “maybe the most important paper” of his long career. In The Journal of Clinical Investigation, the infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University... More
Scientists say the best treatment for COVID-19 may be a cocktail of medicines
Original article from The Boston Globe by Jonathan Saltzman. May 14, 2020 More than a dozen drug firms in Massachusetts are urgently searching for a medicine to treat COVID-19, but the most potent therapy may not end up being a single medication. Instead, medical experts say, the most effective way to... More
BU Scientists Awarded $1.9 Million to Accelerate Coronavirus Research
Original article from The Brink by Kat J. McAlpine. May 13, 2020 Since the novel and fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus first upended life in the United States and around the world, scientists at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) have dropped nearly every other research project to focus on understanding... More
Decoding COVID-19 (Video)
Original video from NOVA by PBS. May 13, 2020 Scientists race to understand and defeat the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has upended life as we know it in a matter of mere months. But at the same time, an unprecedented global effort to understand and contain the virus—and... More
Will antibody testing help get people back to work?
Original article from PBS News Hour by Simon Ostrovsky. April 18, 2020 As the battle between the federal government and states heats up over reopening the economy, antibody testing is being touted as one way to get people back to work. But some researchers at the forefront of developing an accurate... More
Needles In A Haystack: Could Existing Drugs Treat COVID-19?
Original article from WGBH by Liz Neisloss. April 15, 2020 Getting a new drug on the market can sometimes take more than a decade. And that’s why already existing drugs are being used in hundreds of clinical trials around the world, and in Boston, seeking a treatment for COVID-19. Several Boston area... More
BU NEIDL Scientists Can “See the Enemy,” Making Headway on COVID-19 Research
Original article from The Brink by Kat J. McAlpine. April 6, 2020 First things first: in order to take out an enemy, you’ve got to be able to see the enemy. But how do you “see” a seemingly invisible invader like SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for more than a million... More
Antibodies found in blood of recovered coronavirus patients could offer a path to treatment
Original article from Boston Herald by Alexi Cohan. March 31, 2020 Labs around the world are seeking blood samples from recovered coronavirus patients in hopes that their antibodies could unlock a path to treatment for current patients struggling with the contagious disease. “People that have been exposed to COVID-19 and have recovered... More
Boston University lab conducting research on live samples of coronavirus
Original article from WCVB. March 25, 2020 A Boston University lab is the only one in New England with a live sample of COVID-19, according to The Boston Globe. The school's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Lab won approval in 2017 to study some of the most infectious specimens. That move caused controversy in... More