COVID-19 is a pandemic, with news, technologies and research changing daily as the world learns to cope with the new normal. Bookmark this URL for the most up-to-date information on COVID-19, how it impacts today's lab professionals and, most importantly, the remarkable ways scientists are fighting back against the disease.
December 18, 2020
Moderna’s Refrigerator-stable Vaccine Ready for Shipment as Approval Looms
Experts on the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted Thursday night to recommend the approval of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, clearing the way for a second COVID-19 vaccine for U.S. adults. Final approval from both the FDA and CDC for Moderna’s mRNA-1273 could come today or over the weekend.
December 14, 2020
First U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination in the Books as Hospitalizations Soar, Confidence Increases, and CDC Looks at Long-term Safety
This morning, an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens became the first person in the United States to receive the first and only FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine. Over the weekend, the FDA and CDC approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s BNT162b2, an mRNA-based vaccine to fight COVID-19. The timing is apt as the U.S. hit record-high COVID-19 hospitalizations on Friday.
December 10, 2020
Elevated Biomarker for Blood Vessel Damage Found in All Children with SARS-CoV-2
Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found elevated levels of a biomarker related to blood vessel damage in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection, even if the children had minimal or no symptoms of COVID-19.
December 8, 2020
Oxford Vaccine is First to be Peer-reviewed, 70% Effective
Interim results of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trials find that the vaccine protects against symptomatic disease in 70% of cases—with vaccine efficacy of 62% for those given two full doses, and of 90% in those given a half then a full dose (both trial arms pre-specified in the pooled analysis).
December 7, 2020
CRISPR-based Test for COVID-19 Uses a Smartphone Camera
In a new study published in Cell, the team from Gladstone, UC Berkeley, and UCSF has outlined the technology for a CRISPR-based test for COVID-19 that uses a smartphone camera to provide accurate results in under 30 minutes.
December 3, 2020
COVID-19 Studies Should Focus on Mucosal Immunity, Researchers Argue
Noting that the mucosal immune system is the immune system's largest component, the researchers expressed concern that it hasn't been a focus of much of the research on COVID-19 to date.
December 2, 2020
Alcohol-free Hand Sanitizer Just as Effective Against COVID-19 as Alcohol-based Versions
A new study from researchers at Brigham Young University finds that alcohol-free hand sanitizer is just as effective at disinfecting surfaces from the COVID-19 virus as alcohol-based products.
December 2, 2020
Repurposed Mouse Model Sheds Light on Loss of Smell in COVID-19 Patients
A repurposed mouse model can develop symptoms of both severe COVID-19 (lung damage, blood clots, abnormal blood vessels, and death) and also of milder disease, including loss of the sense of smell, according to a recent University of Iowa study published in Nature.
December 2, 2020
UK Approves Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use
Today, the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK granted temporary authorization for emergency use of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine. The BNT162b2 vaccine is now the first in the Western world to receive authorization to battle the novel coronavirus.
November 30, 2020
COVID-19 Update: Airlines Get Involved, No Vaccine for Kids, Moderna to File for EUA
Ten days after filing for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), Pfizer has already put its plan into action, enlisting some interesting partners. According to the Wall Street Journal, as of Friday, United Airlines has begun flying Pfizer’s BNT162b2 vaccine to an from the U.S. and Europe in anticipation of regulatory approval.
November 27, 2020
Virus Evolution Could Undermine a COVID-19 Vaccine– But This Can be Stopped
Could a vaccine that is safe and effective in initial trials go on to fail because the virus evolves its way out of trouble? As evolutionary microbiologists who have studied a poultry virus that has evolved resistance to two different vaccines, we know such an outcome is possible.
November 25, 2020
Researchers Create 3D-printed Nasal Swab for COVID-19 Testing
In response to the critical shortage of nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Radiology at University of South Florida (USF) Health in Tampa set out to design, validate and create NP swabs using a point-of-care 3D printer.
November 20, 2020
LabChat: From Warehouse to COVID-19 Lab in 6 Months
In this episode of Laboratory Equipment's LabChat, Editor-in-Chief Michelle Taylor speaks with Rob Gerlach, the Executive Director of Tech Transfer and Commercialization at Wichita State University. Last month, Wichita State University opened its Molecular Diagnostics Lab, which can process up to up to 32,000 COVID-19 tests per week.
November 18, 2020
With 95% Efficacy in Final Analysis, Pfizer To Seek EUA Approval Immediately
Final analysis of the Phase 3 trial of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine suggests it is 95% effective, even for adults 65 and over who are most at risk of dying from the novel coronavirus. The pharmaceutical giant plans to submit data to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) within days.
November 16, 2020
Moderna's Coronavirus Vaccine is 94.5% Effective, Says Early Data
Monday morning, Moderna announced that early data for the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273—the company’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19—shows it is 94.5% effective. The biotechnology company also said it has made significant progress in the distribution, storage and handling of the vaccine using existing infrastructure.
November 11, 2020
Could SARS-CoV-2 Evolve Resistance to COVID-19 Vaccines?
Similar to bacteria evolving resistance to antibiotics, viruses can evolve resistance to vaccines, and the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 could undermine the effectiveness of vaccines that are currently under development, according to a paper published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
November 10, 2020
Children Produce Different Antibodies in Response to SARS-CoV-2
A study of pediatric and adult COVID-19 patients at two New York Hospitals has found that children and adults produce different types and amounts of antibodies in response to the novel virus. Although the findings strongly suggest the course of infection is different, it’s still not known how children are able to avoid and clear the virus so much more easily than adults.
November 9, 2020
Pfizer: Early Data Says COVID-19 Vaccine is Effective
Early Monday morning, Pfizer said its mRNA-based vaccine is more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in trial participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. The pharmaceutical giant expects to file for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) the third week of November—when it anticipates meeting the required safety milestone.
November 9, 2020
CRISPR-based COVID-19 Kit Could be Path to POC Testing
A simple COVID-19 test kit combines virus amplification with a CRISPR-Cas system for effective SARS-CoV-2 detection. The kit, called iSCAN, uses reagents that can be locally manufactured.
November 6, 2020
Researchers Work to Develop Face Mask that Deactivates COVID-19
In the pandemic, people wear face masks to respect and protect others—not merely to protect themselves. With this in mind, researchers from Northwestern University developed a new concept for a mask that aims to make the wearer less infectious.
November 4, 2020
COVID-19 'Super-spreader' Events Play Larger Role in Disease Transmission Than Thought
There have been many documented cases of COVID-19 "super-spreading" events, in which one person infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects many other people. But how much of a role do these events play in the overall spread of the disease? A new study from MIT suggests that they have a much larger impact than expected.
November 2, 2020
Coronavirus Mutation May Have Made it More Contagious
A study involving more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients in Houston finds that the virus that causes the disease is accumulating genetic mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious.
October 30, 2020
CRISPR Screen IDs Genes, Drug Targets to Protect Against SARS-CoV-2 Infection
To identify new potential therapeutic targets for SARS-CoV-2, a team of scientists at the New York Genome Center, New York University, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, performed a genome-scale, loss-of-function CRISPR screen to systematically knockout all genes in the human genome.
October 30, 2020
Hurdle 1: Develop COVID-19 Vaccine. Hurdle 2: Deliver it at Ultra-low Temperatures
Knowing their mRNA vaccine requires ultra-low temperatures of -70˚ to -80˚C—and anticipating a shortage of ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers—Pfizer designed temperature-controlled shipping packages that use dry ice to keep the vaccine vials at -75˚C for 10 days. According to the pharmaceutical giant, the shippers are roughly the size of a suitcase and weigh about 70 pounds fully loaded.
October 26, 2020
Lab-grown Mini-lungs Mimic the Real Thing- Right Down to COVID-19 Infection
A team of Duke University researchers has developed a lab-grown living lung model that mimics the tiny air sacs of the lungs where coronavirus infection and serious lung damage take place. This advance has enabled them to watch the battle between the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and lung cells at the finest molecular scale.
October 26, 2020
Women in Science: How COVID-19 is Impacting the Burgeoning Biohealth Sector
With a long history in the biomanufacturing field in Wisconsin, Rasmussen has a clear understanding of where the industry has been and where it is heading. Laboratory Equipment’s Michelle Taylor recently spoke to Rasmussen about the growing biohealth industry, her development as a scientist and the ways biomanufacturing can take the lead in fighting COVID-19.
October 23, 2020
FDA Approves First Treatment for COVID-19
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the antiviral drug remdesivir for patients with COVID-19 severe enough to require hospitalization. Remdesivir has been on the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) list for COVID-19 patients since May 1, 2020.
October 22, 2020
Study: Mass Screening Method Could Slash COVID-19 Testing Costs
Using a new mathematical approach to screen large groups for COVID-19 could be around 20x cheaper than individual testing, a study suggests.
October 20, 2020
Pinpointing the Silent Mutations that Gave Coronavirus an Evolutionary Edge
Researchers at Duke University have identified a number of "silent" mutations in the roughly 30,000 letters of the virus's genetic code that helped it thrive once it made the leap—and possibly helped set the stage for the global pandemic. The subtle changes involved how the virus folded its RNA molecules within human cells.
October 16, 2020
Global Team IDs Common Vulnerabilities Across Coronaviruses
In a study published in Science, an international team of almost 200 researchers from 14 leading institutions in six countries studied the three lethal coronaviruses SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV in order to identify commonly hijacked cellular pathways and detect promising targets for broad coronavirus inhibition.
October 14, 2020
Multiple New Studies Say COVID-19 Antibodies Last Several Months
Three separate studies just published in the journals Immunity and Science Immunology suggest COVID-19 antibodies persist in survivors for at least three months—if not longer. Additionally, two of the three studies point to the IgG class of antibodies as the longest-lasting in patients who have contracted COVID-19, with or without symptoms.
October 9, 2020
Previous Infection with Other Types of Coronaviruses May Lessen Severity of COVID-19
Being previously infected with a coronaviruses that cause the "common cold" may decrease the severity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infections, according to results of a new study.
October 8, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Eli Lilly, Regeneron Both File EUA for Antibody-based Treatment
Both Eli Lilly and Regeneron have filed requests to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for their antibody-based treatments for COVID-19.
October 6, 2020
In What Scientists Already Knew, CDC Confirms Coronavirus Spreads Through Air
On Monday, the CDC acknowledged, for the first time, that COVID-19 can spread via particles in the air. Previously, the federal health agency’s “How COVID-19 Spreads” webpage did not contain a section on airborne transmission.
October 2, 2020
Neanderthal Genes Are Responsible for Severe COVID-19 Symptoms
Research performed over the last several months by the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative identified a region on chromosome 3 that influences whether a person will become severely ill. In fact, the gene variant carries up to a 3x higher risk of mechanical ventilation.
October 1, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Experts Paint a Grim Picture in Latest Survey
Vaccine development experts believe an effective vaccine will not be available to the general public before Fall 2021, possibly Summer 2022, according to a new paper published by McGill researchers in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
September 29, 2020
Study: Many Ventilation Systems May Increase Risk of COVID-19 Exposure
Ventilation systems in many modern office buildings, which are designed to keep temperatures comfortable and increase energy efficiency, may increase the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, particularly during the coming winter, according to research published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
September 28, 2020
Engineers Build New Printable Open-source Tools for COVID-19
In his guest blog, engineer Joshua Pearce shares how his lab developed a high-temperature 3D printer, a firefighter mask and a printable, emergency-use ventilator in response to COVID-19.
September 24, 2020
Ancient Spread of Syphilis-related Disease Holds Lessons for COVID-19
History repeats itself, right? Bioarcheologist Melandri Vlok is banking on that as she explores lessons possibly applicable to COVID-19 by examining infectious disease spread among villagers 4,000 years ago. Vlok’s research focuses on skeletal remains from the Man Bac archeological site in Vietnam.
September 24, 2020
Study: Herd Immunity an Impractical Strategy
Achieving herd immunity to COVID-19 is an impractical public health strategy, according to a new model developed by University of Georgia scientists. The study recently appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
September 23, 2020
Glycans in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Play Active Role in Infection
Researchers have uncovered an active role for glycans—sugar molecules that can decorate proteins—in this process, suggesting targets for vaccines and therapies.
September 21, 2020
Biomarker Predicts Who Will Have Severe COVID-19
Researchers have identified key markers that could help pinpoint patients who are bound to get a severe reaction to COVID-19 infection. This would help doctors provide the right treatments at the right time, potentially saving lives.
September 18, 2020
Scientists Predict COVID-19 Will Be a Seasonal Virus—But Not Yet
A new review published in Frontiers in Public Health suggests that COVID-19, the illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, will likely follow the flu and become seasonal in countries with temperate climates, but only when herd immunity is attained.
September 16, 2020
DNA Webs May Drive Lung Pathology in Severe COVID-19
Sticky webs of DNA released from immune cells known as neutrophils may cause much of the tissue damage associated with severe COVID-19 infections, according to two new studies.
September 14, 2020
COVID-19 Spawns 'Infodemic' in Scientific Literature
The science community has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with such a flurry of research studies that it is hard for anyone to digest them all, underscoring a long-standing need to make scientific publication more accessible, transparent and accountable, two artificial intelligence experts assert in a data science journal.
Survey: 7 in 10 Americans Willing to Get COVID-19 Vaccine
Almost seven in 10 Americans would be interested in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available, according to a new study. But researchers say there are concerning gaps in interest, particularly among Black Americans, who suffer disproportionately from the virus.
September 9, 2020
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Vaccine Trial on Hold After Illness
A Phase III study of AstraZeneca and University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate is temporarily on hold while the pharmaceutical company investigates whether a recipient’s illness is a side effect of the shot or unrelated, the pharma giant announced Wednesday. UPDATE: Three days later, on Saturday, the trial resumed.
September 8, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Russia Sees 100% Efficacy, Steroids Reduce Death Rate by 8%
The vaccine Russia gave provisional approval to on August 11 has shown favorable outcomes in a small, non-randomized study. The data was published in The Lancet on Friday, two days after the World Health Organization issued a strong recommendation for the use of steroids among seriously ill COVID-19 patients based on the results of seven clinical trials.
September 3, 2020
Toward a COVID-19 Breathalyzer Test
Researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed a prototype device that non-invasively detected COVID-19 in the exhaled breath of infected patients.
September 2, 2020
The U.S. Will Not Join the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility
The UK, Switzerland, Canada and Australia are among roughly 150 countries that are working toward an international cooperative effort to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine—an effort that will not include the United States as the Trump Administration said Tuesday it “does not want to be constrained by multilateral groups like the World Health Organization.”
August 31, 2020
CRISPR-based COVID Test is Rapid, Accurate and Costs Less Than $1
Recent studies have indicated CRISPR tools have the potential for in vitro diagnostics, something Chinese scientists have leveraged to develop a 100% accurate COVID-19 test that can be mass manufactured for 70 cents.
August 26, 2020
Genomic Analysis Reveals Many Animals May be Vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Humans are not the only species facing a potential threat from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study from the University of California, Davis.
August 24, 2020
Face Mask Inserts Could Help Diagnose Disease
Chinese researchers recently placed a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber in the N95 face masks of volunteers to test the fiber’s in vivo sampling and collection capabilities. The SPME fiber was then coupled with direct analysis in real-time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) to analyze the composition of aerosols in exhaled breath.
August 21, 2020
New Study Questions Remdesivir’s Effect on Patients with Moderate COVID-19
The only drug in the U.S. currently approved to treat COVID-19 patients may not have a significant effect on those with a moderate form of the virus, according to a study published Friday in JAMA.
Study Adds to Evidence that Cells in the Nose are Entry Point for SARS CoV-2
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine, experimenting with a small number of human cell samples, report that the "hook" of cells used by SARS-CoV-2 to latch onto and infect cells is up to 700 times more prevalent in the olfactory supporting cells lining the inside of the upper part of the nose than in the lining cells of the rest of the nose and windpipe that leads to the lungs.
August 17, 2020
FDA Issues EUA to Yale-developed, NBA-funded Saliva COVID-19 Test
With the National Basketball Association (NBA) as an unconventional funding source, Yale researchers have created a COVID-19 test that may give the world its first reprieve during the 2020 pandemic.
Scientists Identify the Order of COVID-19's Symptoms
USC researchers have found the likely order in which COVID-19 symptoms first appear: fever, cough, muscle pain, and then nausea, and/or vomiting, and diarrhea.
August 13, 2020
Health Sector, Pharma Spent Big on Lobbying for COVID-19 Funding
COVID-19 lobbying expenditures ($248.4 million) and new lobbyist registrations (357) of the health sector represented nearly a fourth of all lobbying activity, across all industries, in the first quarter of 2020.
August 12, 2020
Wastewater Can Provide Quick Way to Track COVID-19 Spread
A group of researchers have demonstrated that, from seven methods commonly used to test for viruses in untreated wastewater, an adsorption-extraction technique can most efficiently detect SARS-CoV-2.
August 11, 2020
Russia Has Approved a COVID-19 Vaccine
Russia became the first country to declare a vaccine for COVID-19 safe and effective for the general population. President Vladimir Putin emphasized at a meeting this morning that the vaccine has passed all necessary tests, and his adult daughter has even received two shots of the vaccine.
August 10, 2020
COVID-19 May Have Longer Incubation Period, Says Probability Analysis of Wuhan Cases
By applying the renewal theory in probability to reduce recall bias in initial case reports, scientists have come up with a new estimate for the incubation period of COVID-19. Their mean estimate of 7.76 days, longer than previous estimates of 4 to 5 days, involves the largest amount of patient samples to date in such an analysis.
August 6, 2020
Blood Test May Point to Patients at Higher Risk for COVID-19 Deterioration, Death
Researchers found five biomarkers, medical indicators found in the blood, associated with higher odds of clinical deterioration and death in COVID-19 patients.
August 3, 2020
NIH Invests $250 M in Seven COVID-19 Tests for Scale Up, Manufacturing
The National Institutes of Heath (NIH) is committing nearly $250 million to seven companies with COVID-19 testing innovations that were recently selected through a “Shark Tank approach.”
Study Reveals COVID-19 Transmission Rate on Trains
A study by scientists from the University of Southampton has examined the chances of catching COVID-19 in a train carriage carrying an infectious person.
Mandatory BCG Vaccination Correlates with Slower Spread of COVID-19 Cases
Scientists have found that countries with mandatory Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination until at least the year 2000 tended to exhibit slower infection and death rates during the first 30 days of the outbreak of COVID-19 in their country.
July 31, 2020
Single-shot COVID-19 Vaccine Protects Non-human Primates
Researchers report a leading candidate COVID-19 vaccine developed at BIDMC in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson raised neutralizing antibodies and robustly protected non-human primates (NHPs) against SARS-CoV-2.
July 29, 2020
Study IDs 21 Existing Drugs that Could Treat COVID-19
A Nature study authored by a global team of scientists and led by Sumit Chanda, professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, has identified 21 existing drugs that stop the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
July 27, 2020
Coronavirus Makes Changes That Cause Cells Not to Recognize it
With an alarm code, we can enter a building without bells going off. It turns out that the SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has the same advantage entering cells. It possesses the code to waltz right in.
July 23, 2020
Innovation Could Dramatically Speed Production of COVID-19 Vaccine
A scientific team at The University of Texas at Austin has successfully redesigned a key protein from the coronavirus, and the modification could enable much faster and more stable production of vaccines worldwide.
July 21, 2020
Lab-made Virus Mimics COVID-19 But Doesn't Require BSL-3 Facility
Researchers genetically modified a mild virus by swapping one of its genes for one from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The resulting hybrid virus infects cells and is recognized by antibodies just like SARS-CoV-2, but can be handled under ordinary laboratory safety conditions.
July 20, 2020
Blood Test Detects Positive COVID-19 Result in 20 Minutes
World-first research by Monash University in Australia has been able to detect positive COVID-19 cases using blood samples in about 20 minutes, and identify whether someone has contracted the virus.
July 14, 2020
Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Safe in Phase 1 Trial
An investigational vaccine, mRNA-1273, designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults, according to interim results.
Arthritis Drug Calms COVID-19 Cytokine Storm, Reduces Mortality by 45%
In a new observational, controlled study, the immunosuppressive drug tocilizumab showed a 45% reduction in mortality for COVID-19 patients on ventilators.
July 10, 2020
NIH Launches Clinical Trials Network to Test COVID-19 Vaccines, Other Prevention Tools
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has established a new clinical trials network that aims to enroll thousands of volunteers in large-scale clinical trials testing a variety of investigational vaccines and monoclonal antibodies intended to protect people from COVID-19.
July 9, 2020
Swiss Scientists Call COVID-19 Herd Immunity ‘Unethical’ as Multiple Studies Indicate it’s Not Possible
With recent studies in the U.S., Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and China all revealing a low rate of nationwide seroprevalence, scientists are speaking out against the herd immunity technique touted by some politicians.
July 7, 2020
Researchers Create Air Filter that Can Kill COVID-19
Researchers from the University of Houston, in collaboration with others, have designed a "catch and kill" air filter that can trap the virus responsible for COVID-19, killing it instantly.
July 2, 2020
Gilead Prices Remdesivir for COVID-19 at $2,340 Per Treatment
The only drug in the U.S. currently approved to treat COVID-19 patients by shortening recovery time just got its price.
July 1, 2020
Whole-town Study Reveals Over 40% of COVID-19 Infections Had No Symptoms
A study of COVID-19 in the quarantined Italian town of Vò, where most of the population was tested, reveals the importance of asymptomatic cases.
June 25, 2020
MMR Vaccine May Protect Children from COVID-19
An international cohort of researchers is following up on hypothesis already backed by some evidence—early childhood vaccinations, especially for measles, may be protecting children from COVID-19.
June 22, 2020
Old Drug Standards Delay New Drug Approvals
During the next year, the Food and Drug Administration will review many new drug applications for preventing and treating the new coronavirus. But early approvals could get delayed by the standards the agency used for older drugs.
MMR Vaccine Could Protect Adults Against the Worst Symptoms of COVID-19
Administering the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine could serve as a preventive measure to dampen septic inflammation associated with COVID-19 infection.
June 19, 2020
45 Epidemiologists Demand Retraction of COVID-19 Paper Authored by Nobel Laureate
A contingent of epidemiologists is calling on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) to retract a COVID-19 paper regarding airborne transmission and face mask-wearing, citing series methodological flaws and false statements that may already be negatively affecting public health measures.
June 18, 2020
Leading COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate to Enter Phase 3 Trial in July
Early next month, the first COVID-19 vaccine candidate will enter a Phase 3 trial, the final phase before potential FDA approval. Moderna’s mRNA-1273, an mRNA vaccine candidate, is expected to enter the Phase 3 study the first week of July.
The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes—and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles
Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.
June 16, 2020
COVID-19 May Decimate Outdoor Science Education for K-12 Students
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the survival of organizations nationwide that provide critical outdoor environmental and science education to K-12 students, with an alarming 63% of such groups uncertain about their ability to ever reopen their doors.
Lab Design Techniques to Accelerate COVID-19 Test Processing
Producing enough tests and making them available to the public is just one half of this challenge. Processing the results quickly is the other.
June 15, 2020
FDA Revokes Authorization of Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 Treatments
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has revoked the emergency use authorization (EAU) of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients, citing poor effectiveness and severe side effects.
COVID-19 May Trigger Onset of Diabetes
Emerging evidence suggests that COVID-19 may actually trigger the onset of diabetes in healthy people and also cause severe complications of pre-existing diabetes.
June 12, 2020
COVID-19 Threatens the Entire Nervous System
A new review of neurological symptoms of COVID-19 patients in current scientific literature reveals the disease poses a global threat to the entire nervous system.
June 9, 2020
Study: Majority of First-wave COVID-19 Clinical Trials Have Design Shortcomings
Most of the registered clinical trials of potential treatments for COVID-19 underway as of late March were designed in ways that will greatly limit their value in understanding potential treatments.
June 5, 2020
App Uses Biomarkers to Determine Likely Severity of COVID-19 Patients
Created by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry, the app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess risk factors and key biomarkers from blood tests, producing a COVID-19 "severity score."
June 2, 2020
LC-MS Method Ensures Safer Hydroxychloroquine Dosage Per Individual
Even if hydroxychloroquine proves to be an effective treatment for COVID-19, the side effects can be deadly. In a recent study, researchers at Uppsala University found a workaround—adjust the dosage of hydroxychloroquine for each patient based on whole blood tests.
May 29, 2020
Most Americans Will Get Vaccinated, Expect a COVID-19 Vaccine Within a Year
Will citizens vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 when the chance arises? The answer is yes, at least for almost three-quarters of U.S. adults.
May 26, 2020
First COVID-19 Vaccine to Reach Phase 1 Trial is Safe, Effective, Study Says
The first COVID-19 vaccine to reach Phase 1 clinical trials has been found to be safe, effective and without severe adverse effects.
May 25, 2020
Placentas from COVID-19-Positive Pregnant Women Show Injury
The placentas from 16 women who tested positive for COVID-19 while pregnant showed evidence of injury, according to pathological exams completed directly following birth.
May 21, 2020
Study: Interferons Treatment Speeds COVID-19 Virus Removal by 7 Days
A research team showed interferons significantly accelerated viral clearance and also reduced levels of inflammatory proteins in moderately ill COVID-19 patients.
May 20, 2020
Data Suggest Female Researchers Fall Behind During COVID-19
Early data indicates that yes, women are bearing the brunt of life care during the pandemic, leading to decreased research productivity.
May 19, 2020
Machine That Oxygenates Blood May Help Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients
An ECMO machine works by pumping someone's blood outside of their body, oxygenating it and returning it to the body. In this way, the ECMO machine gives the lungs--and sometimes the heart--time to rest and heal.
May 18, 2020
Public Health Agencies Issue Alerts on Fatal Pediatric Illness Related to COVID-19
The CDC and WHO have officially released advisories on multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, which the medical community believes is related to COVID-19.
May 15, 2020
Unique MS Method Could Narrow Down Search for COVID-19 Drug Treatment
A team of biochemists and virologists were able to observe how human cells change upon infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19 in people.
May 12, 2020
Men's Blood Contains Greater Concentrations of Enzyme that Helps COVID-19 Infect Cells
Evidence from a large study of several thousand patients shows that men have higher concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in their blood than women.
May 11, 2020
Computer Lung Model Enables Protective Ventilation
A computational lung model can be used to reduce damage caused by mechanical ventilation, and could increase survival rates for patients significantly.
May 7, 2020
Recently Recovered COVID-19 Patients Produce Varying Virus-specific Antibodies
Most newly discharged patients who recently recovered from COVID-19 produce virus-specific antibodies and T cells, but the responses of different patients are not all the same.
May 6, 2020
Airbus Wants its Bomb-detecting ‘E-nose’ to Sense COVID-19
In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus said they are pivoting to incorporate “biological hazard detection” capabilities into the e-nose. They expect to conduct in-situ testing by later-2020.
May 5, 2020
Antibodies from Llamas are a Promising Avenue in Fight Against COVID-19
Thanks to years of coronavirus research, Wrapp and his team have engineered a new antibody that binds tightly to a key protein on SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
May 4, 2020
FDA Approves Emergency Use of Remdesivir to Treat Some COVID-19 Patients
For the second time during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA has granted an Emergency Use Authorization for a drug to treat an illness beside the indication it was initially developed for.
May 1, 2020
Novel Imaging Application Illuminates Processes in COVID-19, Cancer
Medical images for a wide range of diseases, including COVID-19, can now be more easily viewed, compared, and analyzed using a breakthrough web-based imaging platform.
April 30, 2020
Researchers Devise New Model to Track COVID-19's Spread
Researchers have developed an approach for rapidly tracking population flows that could help policymakers worldwide more effectively assess risk of disease spread and allocate limited resources as they combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 28, 2020
3-Week-Old With Severe COVID-19 has Recovered
In one of the first reported cases of its kind, a 3-week-old infant in critical condition recovered from COVID-19 due to rapid recognition and treatment.
Key Nose Cells Identified as Likely COVID-19 Virus Entry Points
Scientists discovered that goblet and ciliated cells in the nose have high levels of the entry proteins that the COVID-19 virus uses to get into our cells.
April 27, 2020
Bats and Coronaviruses Have Been Evolving Together for Millions of Years
A recent paper has revealed an interesting twist in the pandemic story—bats and coronaviruses have been evolving together for millions of years.
Ethicists: Crises are No Excuse for Lowering Scientific Standards
Ethicists are calling on the global research community to resist treating the urgency of the current COVID-19 outbreak as grounds for making exceptions to rigorous research standards in pursuit of treatments and vaccines.
April 23, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine Raises Death Rate of COVID-19 Patients in New Study
President Donald Trump has very publicly touted the benefits of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19, but a new study of U.S. veterans has actually shown increased mortality rates for patients treated with the antimalarial drug.
April 21, 2020
Engineers MacGyver Shipping Container to Sanitize COVID-19 PPE
An engineering team from Michigan Tech University has Macgyvered a refrigerated shipping container, commercial-grade baking sheets and modified oven into a prototype mobile sanitation unit.
April 17, 2020
COVID-19 Apps Help Track, ‘Diagnose’ the Virus
In separate projects, university researchers have developed two COVID-19-related apps—one that permits contact tracing for coronavirus infections and one that attempts to detect signs of the disease through voice analysis.
23andMe to Launch Genome-wide Association Study of COVID-19 Patients
23andMe is using their considerable database to further COVID-19 research. Last week, the genetic testing company began recruiting and enrolling hundreds of thousands of consenting 23andMe customers in its research program to understand if and how genetics play a role in the severity of COVID-19.
April 14, 2020
COVID-19 Treatment Update: Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Leronlimab, Ivermectin, and More
Vaccines are a promising long-term solution, but they typically take 12 to 18 months to create. In the short-term, researchers have been having early success with experimental drugs.
Thailand Reports First Case of COVID-19 Spreading to Forensic Examiner From Deceased
Writing in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, a pathologist from Thailand and one from China say they have observed the first fatal case of COVID-19 transferring from a deceased patient to a medical examiner.
April 9, 2020
Researchers Reveal Genetic Map of COVID-19
Researchers experimentally confirmed the predicted subgenomic RNAs that are translated into viral proteins.
April 7, 2020
Survivors of SARS, COVID-19 May be Key to Vaccine Development
Two groups of scientists just published independent studies in Nature and Science that look to survivors of SARS and COVID-19 for current—and future—treatment options.
April 6, 2020
Crime Lab Uses Evidence Drying Cabinets to Decontaminate N95 Masks
Rather than the typical evidentiary clothing and personal belongings that need to be dried without cross contamination, scientists at the crime lab have adapted a method to use the cabinets to decontaminate N95 masks for front-line workers.
April 3, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Shows Promise in First Peer-reviewed Research
When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus.
April 2, 2020
Trial Drug Can Significantly Block Early Stages of COVID-19 in Engineered Human Tissues
An international team has found a trial drug that effectively blocks the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts.
UC Berkeley Scientists Spin Up a Robotic COVID-19 Testing Lab
As doctors around the country scramble to diagnose cases of COVID-19, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) are creating from scratch a diagnostic lab with the capability to process more than 1,000 patient samples per day.
March 31, 2020
Opinion: Billionaires Step Up to the Plate in Responding to COVID-19
Some millionaires and billionaires keep their money to themselves, which is fine, of course, because that’s their prerogative. Bill and Melinda Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and Pricilla Chan are not those kinds of billionaires.
Controlling COVID-19 Transmission Using a Mobile App to Trace Close Proximity Contact
If rapidly and widely developed, these mobile apps could help to significantly slow the rate of transmission, and support countries to emerge from lockdowns safely, as restrictions are gradually eased.
March 30, 2020
How to Help: Laboratory Products Association Provides COVID-19 Guidance
Clark Mulligan, president of the Laboratory Products Association (LPA), released a list of ways labroatory companies can help other during the COVID-19 pandemic, if resources are available.
March 27, 2020
FDA Approves Blood Plasma Donations from Recovered COVID-19 Patients to Treat Severe Cases
The FDA has fast-tracked the use of convalescent plasma to treat critical coronavirus patients, and are working quickly toward convalescent plasma clinical trials from multiple investigators.
Some COVID-19 Patients Still Have Coronavirus After Symptoms Disappear
In a new study, researchers found that half of the patients they treated for mild COVID-19 infection still had coronavirus for up to eight days after symptoms disappeared.
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): Risk Factors, Cytokine Storms, and Testing
In a study, performed by Kelvin To and colleagues, researchers investigated the viral load and antibody profiles for 23 COVID-19 positive patients.
March 25, 2020
Europe Eyes Smartphone Location Data to Stem Virus Spread
The Czech Republic has become the first European country to announce plans to deploy a powerful but potentially intrusive location-tracking tool for fighting the coronavirus pandemic, as others consider similar moves bound to put public health in conflict with individual privacy.
Frontera Supercomputer to Model COVID-19
Scientists are preparing a massive computer model of the coronavirus that they expect will give insight into how it infects in the body.
COVID-19 Should be Wake-up Call for Robotics Research
Robots could perform some of the "dull, dirty and dangerous" jobs associated with combating the COVID-19 pandemic, but that would require many new capabilities not currently being funded or developed.
March 24, 2020
Crime Scene Investigations During COVID-19
Proper PPE is essential when dealing with chemical nerve agents, transdermal drugs, and yes, even global viral pandemics. All of these are real and present risks to modern investigators, and proper PPE use deserves our full consideration.
March 23, 2020
Study Reveals How Long COVID-19 Remains Infectious on Cardboard, Metal, Plastic
The virus that causes COVID-19 remains for several hours to days on surfaces and in aerosols, a new study found.
March 20, 2020
LabChat Podcast: Taking R&D Risks Amid COVID-19
In this episode of Laboratory Equipment's LabChat, editor-in-chief Michelle Taylor chats with economic professor Joshua Graff Zivin, who recently wrote a working paper that says appropriate risk-taking is key to successful R&D programs.
March 18, 2020
Scientists Band Together to 3D-print Breathing Valves for COVID-19 Patients in 6 Hours
A hospital in Brescia, Italy was running out of the valves used in patients’ respirators and the supplier could not provide them quickly enough—at least not before the possibility of death for some COVID-19-infected patients. Is it possible to 3D-print these valves?
March 16, 2020
Roundup: The Most Promising COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts
Researchers are working tirelessly to develop something to help the world in these trying times.
March 11, 2020
New COVID-19 Study Estimates 5.1 Days for Incubation Period
An analysis of publicly available data on infections from the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the respiratory illness COVID-19 yielded an estimate of 5.1 days for the median disease incubation period, according to a new study.
February 27, 2020
New York Physicians Confirm CT is Best Way to Diagnose Coronavirus
Mount Sinai Health System physicians—the first experts in the country to analyze chest computed tomography (CT) scans of patients from China with coronavirus disease (COVID-19)—have identified specific patterns in the lungs as markers of the disease as it develops over the course of a week and a half.
February 20, 2020
Breakthrough in Coronavirus Research Results in New Map to Support Vaccine Design
Researchers have made a critical breakthrough toward developing a vaccine for the 2019 novel coronavirus by creating the first 3D atomic scale map of the part of the virus that attaches to and infects human cells.