About the center
Drs. Gene Oltz, Ann Scheck McAlearney, Ashish Panchal, and Linda Saif will serve as multi-principal investigators for the Center to STOP-COVID, a new Serological Sciences Center of Excellence supported by a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute in the National Institutes of Health. The effort will study the long-term effect of COVID-19 on first responders, health care workers and the general population.
Contact information
For more details about the center, email Center to STOP-COVID Research Manager Alice Gaughan at alice.gaughan@osumc.edu.
Announcements
Congratulations to Dr. Dan Jones, Professor and Vice Chair of Molecular Pathology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who has received a $25,000 Infectious Diseases Institute Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grant as Principal Investigator for "Viral metagenomics to identify shifting SARS-CoV-2 variants and co-occurring respiratory infections in wastewater." For the effort, he will collaborate with Drs. Jiyoung Lee, Vanessa Hale, Matthew Avenarius, Laura Kubatko, Huolin Tu, and Xiaokang Pan.
Dr. Jones recently made headlines, including in the New York Times and Washington Post, with his work leading a study that discovered a new variant of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Recent News
Pandemic isn't over: Ohio State researchers study effect on first responders
“The big focus about first responders for us is that they’re the ones on the front lines,” said Ashish Panchal, MD, PhD, who was quoted in multiple news sources across the state while discussing the STOP COVID study.
Dr. Saif: 'If its ability to infect people is confined, it may also be viewed as a pandemic threat'
The Center to STOP COVID's Linda Saif, PhD, MS, and Anastasia Vlasova, DVM, PhD, both with Ohio State, are quoted in Science magazine regarding ongoing efforts to identify new coronaviruses that may be able to infect people as they emerge.
Ohio State to study COVID-19 in first responders with $10 million grant
“Stopping the spread of COVID-19 will require research that cross-cuts basic, translational and applied sciences,” said Dr. Gene Oltz, chair of the Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and lead co-principal investigator for the study, in a news release from Ohio State.
NIH to launch the Serological Sciences Network for COVID-19, announce grant and contract awardees
The National Institutes of Health announced: "The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched the Serological Sciences Network for COVID-19 (SeroNet), an initiative aimed at quickly increasing the nation’s antibody testing capacity and engaging the U.S. research community to understand the immune response to COVID-19. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health." Dr. Ann Scheck McAlearney is pictured. Emergency medical services personnel awareness and training about personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic
"With the emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), appropriate training for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel on personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential," Ashish R. Panchal, pictured, and his co-authors write in Prehospital Emergency Care. Zooming in on COVID-19: The Infectious Diseases Institute's Virtual COVID-19 Symposium
On December 3, The Ohio State University’s Infectious Diseases Institute hosted a virtual symposium to bring people together to discuss their roles in the response to COVID-19. The IDI “has been really instrumental in bringing these groups together,” said Dr. Linda Saif, pictured.
Eleven Ohio State scientists named AAAS Fellows
Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, professor of veterinary biosciences, was honored "for distinguished contributions to our understanding of virus-host interaction and viral pathogenesis, as well as impact on scientific communication, diversity and international collaboration." Learn more in this story from Ohio State News.
Study finds specific proteins inhibit or enhance virus that causes COVID-19
"Our new findings are potentially quite important because there are people who have mutations in the IFITM3 gene, possibly making them more susceptible not only to influenza but also SARS-CoV-2," said co-author Jacob Yount, an associate professor of Microbial Infection and Immunity and co-director of the Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program at Ohio State's Infectious Disease Institute, in an article appearing at phys.org. COVID-19 antibodies on trial
As the initial readouts of trials of antibodies against COVID-19 are released, Nature Biotechnology asked Dr. Linda Saif, pictured, and others in a group of experts "to comment on the challenges and timelines for these products."