COVID-19 Research Projects

Optimizing COVID-19 control with asymptomatic surveillance testing in a university environment.
Cara E. Brook, Graham R. Northrup, Alexander J. Ehrenberg, Jennifer Doudna, and Mike Boots, UC Berkeley.
— medRxiv preprint: Optimizing COVID-19 control with asymptomatic surveillance testing in a university environment

Next-generation CRISPR-based diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2.
Jennifer Doudna, Patrick Hsu, and Dave Savage, UC Berkeley
Detection of active SARS-CoV-2 infections in crude and complex biofluids.
Markita Landry, UC Berkeley. Read more >
— Research spotlight: Markita Landry on Rapid, Nanosensor-Based Tests
— medRxiv preprint: Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Detection by Carbon Nanotube-Based Near-Infrared Nanosensors

Next-generation sequencing to inform COVID-19 outbreak response in Madagascar.
Cara E. Brook, UC Berkeley. Read more >
Rapid, low-cost, high-throughput viral and metagenome sequencing of COVID-19 patient samples for outbreak surveillance.
Liana Lareau and Stacia Wyman, UC Berkeley. Read more >
Real-time genomic tracking of SARS-CoV-2 evolution and spread in Northern California.
Charles Chiu, UCSF. Read more >
– Publication: Genomic surveillance reveals multiple introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into Northern California
Community-based longitudinal study of asymptomatic carriage and seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the Northern California Bay Area.
Eva Harris and Lisa Barcellos, UC Berkeley. Read more >
Community-based surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among California farmworkers.
Joseph Lewnard, Brenda Eskenazi, and Ana María Mora-Wyrobek, UC Berkeley. Read more >
– Research Spotlight: Brenda Eskenazi on Risks to California Farmworkers
Early detection of COVID-19 reemergence via strain-level surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and RNA viromes in municipal wastewater.
Kara Nelson and Jill Banfield, UC Berkeley. Read more >
– medRxiv Preprint: Genome sequencing of sewage detects regionally prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants
– Research Spotlight: Kara Nelson on Tracking Spread Through Wastewater

Discovering and targeting the RNA structural code underlying SARS-CoV-2 life cycle.
Hani Goodarzi, UCSF. Read more >
Identification of host-dependency factors for SARS-CoV-2.
Nevan Krogan and Melanie Ott, UCSF. Read more >
Transcriptomic features of cellular and tissue pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human tissues.
Bruce Wang, UCSF. Read more >
Exploring SARS-CoV-2 viruses using CRISPR-based yeast recombineering.
Raul Andino and Hiten Madhani, UCSF. Read more >
– Research Spotlight: Hiten Madhani on Developing a Live-Attenuated Vaccine
Inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 virulence protein function using functional genomics and structural biology.
Britt Glaunsinger, UC Berkeley. Read more >

Virtual mentoring: Impacts of COVID-19 on the next generation of the scientific workforce.
Laleh Coté, LBNL & UC Berkeley; Anne Baranger, UC Berkeley; and Colette Flood, LBNL.
Read more >
– Research Spotlight: Laleh Coté on Virtual Mentoring

Structural studies of the COVID-19 replication/transcription holo-complex.
Eva Nogales, UC Berkeley. Read more >
The QCRG structural consortium: targeting the host-pathogen interface.
Oren Rosenberg and Kliment Verba, UCSF. Read more >
— biRxiv Preprints: Multiple papers
Determining factors that inhibit the interaction between COVID-19 and its receptor on lung epithelial cells.
Robert Stroud, UCSF. Read more >
– bioRxiv Preprint: Bi-paratopic and multivalent human VH domains neutralize SARS-CoV-2 by targeting distinct epitopes within the ACE2 binding interface of Spike
– bioRxiv Preprint: Peptide antidotes to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

Epigenome editing: a new prophylactic SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic.
Luke Gilbert, UCSF and Jonathan Weissman, Whitehead Institute. Read more >
– Research Spotlight: Luke Gilbert on an Epigenetic Pretreatment
A Cas9-based shuttle enhancing cellular import and nuclear localization of plasmid DNA as an adjuvant of non-viral SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccines entering human trials.
Alex Marson, UCSF and Ross Wilson, UC Berkeley. Read more >
Screening for small molecule inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 enzymes.
Dan Nomura, Jamie Cate, et al., UC Berkeley. Read more >
Development of antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics for COVID-19.
Anders Näär, UC Berkeley. Read more >

Overview