Lab-grown mini-lungs mimic the real thing — including COVID-19 infection

October 23, 2020
Living human lung air sacs in tiny dishes promise to accelerate COVID-19 research.

NIH funds community engagement research efforts in areas hardest hit by COVID-19

October 19, 2020
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced a $12 million award for outreach and engagement efforts in ethnic and racial minority communities that are being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The award — made to RTI International — will support teams in 11 states that are part of the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. In North Carolina, the CEAL principal investigator is Dr. Anissa I. Vines of the UNC Gillings School.

UNC research uncovers evidence of human susceptibility to emerging coronavirus strain in swine

October 12, 2020
New research from the Baric Lab suggests that an emerging strain of coronavirus known as swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) may have the potential to spread to humans as well.

Black women with breast cancer experience delayed, longer treatment than white women

October 5, 2020
One in seven Black women with breast cancer had delays in starting treatment, and Black women also had extended duration of treatment, according to a study led by researchers from the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and UNC's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Benefield honored with Michael S. O’Malley Alumni Award for research to identify racial differences in breast cancer outcomes

September 18, 2020
Halei Benefield has been named the 2020 recipient of the Michael S. O’Malley Alumni Award for Publication Excellence in Cancer Population Sciences.

Could drones be the key to increasing defibrillator use during a heart attack?

September 16, 2020
Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests take place in the United States. An estimated 90% of the people who experience one do not survive. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team led by Dr. Wayne Rosamond describes a new method to give bystanders life-saving access to AEDs: drone delivery.

Google.org funds UNC, VUMC research into COVID-19 genetic impact

September 10, 2020
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been awarded $500,000 by Google’s philanthropy, Google.org, to study how COVID-19 alters gene expression in some people in ways that may be linked to their risk of severe illness and death.

New study links particulate matter pollution to brain damage, depression

September 1, 2020
Recent research by a team that included Drs. William Vizuete and Marc Serre adds to mounting evidence that long-term exposure to particulate matter pollution contributes to memory loss and may accelerate aging of the brain, especially later in life.

Building early warning systems against pandemic threats

August 31, 2020
The nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance has announced its latest program: The Emerging Infectious Diseases Southeast Asia Research Collaboration Hub. This is one of a new group of research centers supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and faculty at the UNC Gillings School are key collaborators.

Mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 model provides new tool for COVID-19 discoveries

August 31, 2020
A new COVID-19 mouse model developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill captures many of the features of human disease and has helped advance a vaccine candidate to clinical trial.