August 10, 2020 The development of a safe and effective vaccine is a key step in ending the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of scientists now report that a leading candidate COVID-19 vaccine raises neutralizing antibodies and robustly protects non-human primates against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
August 3, 2020 In an effort to further our understanding of how COVID-19 is spread, the National Science Foundation has funded a team of researchers at the Gillings School, led by Dr. Barbara Turpin, to study the SARS-CoV-2 virus' potential for aerosol transmission.
July 23, 2020 Based on positive results published as a preclinical study, potently neutralizing antibodies show promise as a therapy for preventing and treating COVID-19. The monoclonal antibodies were isolated from the blood of a couple from Wuhan, China, who were diagnosed with COVID-19.
July 23, 2020 Drs. Alison Aiello and Bonnie Shook-Sa of the UNC Gillings School and Dr. Ross Boyce of the UNC School of Medicine published a viewpoint piece on the downsides of certain types of early SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence studies.
July 22, 2020 The North Carolina Policy Collaboratory funded 85 projects across 14 UNC System schools, including $6.1 million for COVID-19 research at the Gillings School and $1 million allocated to each of the six historically minority-serving institutions.
July 9, 2020 Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Gilead Sciences report that remdesivir greatly inhibited SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in human lung cell cultures and also improved lung function in mice infected with the virus.
June 29, 2020 Researchers at the Gillings School have identified a possible testing model for SARS-CoV-2 that could rapidly and efficiently screen 2 to 20 times as many people as an individual molecular-based test could.
June 25, 2020 The 2020 Community Report on Autism from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes research from Dr. Julie Daniels, has found that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder detected in 8-year-olds in North Carolina was significantly higher than the national average. It also found that the prevalence detected in 4-year-olds was lower.
June 15, 2020 Scientists have created a test that pinpoints human antibodies specific to a unique part of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The test can help document COVID-19 infections, identify asymptomatic virus infection and measure the level of immunity in individuals.
June 2, 2020 A major study of novel coronavirus infection in human airways adds to evidence that wearing a mask is an important step toward limiting transmission of COVID-19. The lead authors of the study in the journal Cell are UNC-Chapel Hill virology expert Dr. Ralph Baric and pulmonary expert Dr. Richard Boucher.
