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COVID-19 Research at IGI, SARS-CoV-2 virus

COVID-19 Research Projects

We are working rapidly to better understand, detect, track, and develop therapies for the novel coronavirus through a range of COVID-19 research projects.

 

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Overview

The IGI is accelerating research efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We have awarded over $2 million in funding to new COVID-19 research projects through our Rapid Response Research (RRR) fund and the Laboratory for Genomics Research (LGR) Excellence in Research Award (ERA). Because of the urgency of this public health crisis, we are supporting projects that will yield results in just 6–12 months. 

These research projects span a variety of approaches aimed at quickly gaining a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic to track its spread, develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and to address the impacts of the pandemic on science.

We will update this page as projects progress.

Our COVID-19 Research

Diagnostics

  • 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 >

Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Viral Sequencing

  • 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
  • Real-time genomic tracking of SARS-CoV-2 evolution and spread in Northern California.
    Charles Chiu, UCSF
  • 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 >
  • 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 >

SARS-CoV-2 Virology, Life Cycle, and Pathogenesis

  • 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, UCSF
  • Transcriptomic features of cellular and tissue pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human tissues.
    Bruce Wang, UCSF
  • Exploring SARS-CoV-2 viruses using CRISPR-based yeast recombineering.
    Raul Andino and Hiten Madhani, UCSF
  • Inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 virulence protein function using functional genomics and structural biology.
    Britt Glaunsinger, UC Berkeley. Read more >

Structural Biology and Therapeutic Targets

  • 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, UCSF
  • Determining factors that inhibit the interaction between COVID-19 and its receptor on lung epithelial cells.
    Robert Stroud, UCSF

Vaccines and Therapeutics

  • Epigenome editing: a new prophylactic SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic.
    Luke Gilbert, UCSF and Jonathan Weissman, Whitehead Institute
  • 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
  • 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 >

Social Science

  • 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 >

Hear From Our Researchers

Liana Lareau
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering 

 

Britt Glaunsinger
Professor of Molecular & Cell Biology/Plant & Microbial Biology

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