RCSA’s COVID-19 Initiative Funds 7 Promising Proposals
Seven teams of scientists have been awarded a total of $715,000 for cutting-edge research through Research Corporation for Science Advancement’s COVID-19 Initiative: Detecting and Mitigating Epidemics.
“With the funding of these projects, RCSA is seeking to bring perspectives and methods from the physical sciences to bear on the detection and treatment of this and future pandemics, and to create opportunities for physical scientists to contribute to the global effort to combat the coronavirus,’’ said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer.
For each proposal, team members were awarded $55,000 apiece to support the work. Funded proposals are:
Glycomimetics for Inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 Entry
Nicole Snyder, chemistry, Davidson College
Collaborating with: Laura Hartmann, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Dϋsseldorf; and Mario Schelhaas, Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität, Mϋnster
Pan-Covid-19 MultiValent Binders (MVBs) to Block Virus Entry
Rommie Amaro, chemistry and biochemistry, University of California, San Diego;
Ronit Freeman, biomaterials, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and
Carlos Simmerling, chemistry, Stony Brook University
Establishing Swift, Sensitive, and Selective (3S) Sensing Technologies – Going Beyond RT-PCR
Ronit Freeman, biomaterials, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
Zachary Schultz, chemistry and biochemistry, The Ohio State University
Modulating Ribosomal Frameshifts to Interfere with Viral Protein Translation
Stephen Fried, biophysics, Johns Hopkins University;
Matthias Heyden, molecular sciences, Arizona State University;
Carlos Simmerling, chemistry, Stony Brook University
Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Frameshift Site Pseudoknot
Amanda Hargrove, chemistry, Duke University;
Katie Mouzakis, chemistry, Loyola Marymount University
Collaborating with: Victoria D’Souza, Harvard University; and Gary Brewer, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
A New Technology to Assess COVID-19 Serosurveillance
Neil Kelleher, chemistry, Northwestern University
Collaborating with: Paul Thomas, Eleonora Forte, Rafael Melani, Richard LeDuc, Daniela Ladner, Alexander (Sasha) Misharin, and Huiping Liu, Northwestern University
Electric Field-Driven Antigen Enrichment to Achieve Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein in Urine at the Point-of-Need
Robbyn Anand, chemistry, Iowa State University
The initiative began April 22 with a series of online meetings attended by 110 Cottrell Scholars, Scialog Fellows and Scialog Facilitators interested in using their skills and knowledge to respond to the global crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
After an introduction to the virology of SARS-CoV-2 by two Northwestern University professors from the Department of Molecular Biosciences, Robert Lamb and Curt Horvath, participants met in small breakout groups to explore areas of opportunity for research and collaboration. Interested teams wrote their first proposals that week.
Expedited proposal submission and review processes enabled RCSA to make these awards less than five weeks after the initiative’s first virtual meeting.
Participants said they appreciated the opportunity to explore ways their research might be able to contribute to fighting the pandemic, and to make new connections with other scientists.
“With the postponement of our in-person conferences this spring, we had to get creative and find ways of deploying our resources to support work that might mitigate the current crisis or future ones that may follow,” said Program Director Andrew Feig, who headed the initiative. “We learned a lot about convening virtual meetings and are putting those ideas to use planning other ways to bring our communities of scientists together.”
