After weeks of sheltering in place, Berkeley bioengineers are only increasing their efforts to mitigate the effects of COVID-19.
- Prof Niren Murthy’s lab is working to find a new small molecule target for treatment, pursuing the PLpro protease that appears to be essential for coronavirus replication. They are collaborating with the Ott, Nomura and Mofrad labs on expression, assay and rapid screening.
- Prof Kevin Healy and Adjunct Prof Syed Hossainy are moving very rapidly on improving the effectiveness of current treatment medications by switching to inhaled delivery through a nebulizer. This has been shown to deliver the drugs much more quickly to lung tissue over oral or injection. Healy Lab is using their biomaterials expertise to characterize the the physics of the drug solution and optimize it for aerosol delivery, while Hossainy is working with partners in Bangladesh and the US to rapidly push current formulations through laboratory and clinical trials.
- Healy Lab is also working to set up testing of their cardiac chip to study the cardiac side effects of drugs and drug combinations to inform clinical trial designs. The chip allows researchers to study many drug combinations and formulations in rapid succession specifically for cardiac side effects, which are very common with current COVID-19 treatments.
- Steve Conolly’s lab is focusing on testing equipment for protective mask effectiveness. Hospitals and other providers need a quick and reliable way to test if the masks they are buying actually meet claimed filtration standards, and if those being sanitizing for reuse are retaining their effectiveness. Filter testing equipment is currently complicated and very hard to obtain. Conolly Lab is studying a proposed portable filtration test detecting nebulized magnetic nanoparticles, an area of special expertise for their lab.
- Conolly Lab is also partnering with others to study the effectiveness of an inexpensive UV mask decontamination box using off-the-shelf UV LEDs.
- Nitasha Goyal, an MTM student, and 3 other Berkeley/UCSF students launched a platform called SF Food Friends to connect low-risk individuals with homebound people (sick, immunocompromised or elderly) in their neighborhood to assist with grocery shopping, buying essential items or medications, delivering food, and mental support during isolation.
- The Master of Translational Medicine community is on the front lines providing care as physicians and nurses, and connecting patients with telemedicine services.
- MTM students are also working on ventilator efforts through Y-Combinator, developing 3D-printed face masks, and volunteering in various settings, such as screening at hospitals.
- PhD student Alison Fanton, among many others, is volunteering her time to run COVID-19 tests at UCSF
- BioE undergrad Gillian Chu is working with Shield the Bay to manufacture PPE face shields for healthcare providers. Support their work on GoFundMe!
- PhD alumna Elizabeth Schneider was the first plasma donor in the state of Washington to participate in a research study that could potentially use convalescent plasma from COVID-19 survivors as a treatment.
- BS and PhD alumnus Dino Di Carlo, now a professor at UCLA, has shared his lab’s tips on how graduate students can stay productive during shutdown.