UMass Medical School receives slice of $17M coronavirus research funding
Photo | Grant Welker
UMass Medical School in Worcester
Three coronavirus-related research projects at UMass Medical School have received funding as part of a statewide initiative, the Worcester school announced Wednesday.
The research includes one project looking into antibody-mediated cytotoxic immunity to the virus, another identifies and targets host cells and genes crucial in the virus's development, and a third studies variants of the virus.
Funding comes from the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, an initiative known as MassCPR convened by Harvard Medical School to fight the pandemic and to prepare for future outbreaks. The initiative awarded $16.5 million in research funding to 62 projects, of which UMass Medical School received an unspecified share.
The group, which formed in March, includes scientists and clinicians from Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University in Medford and local biomedical research institutes, biotech companies and academic medical centers. Funding recipients included researchers at Boston hospitals Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.
The cytotoxic — meaning something toxic to living cells — immunity study is being conducted by Dr. Ann Moormann, a professor of medicine and population and quantitative health sciences. She will work to determine the range of functional antibodies to the virus that could protect against the disease.
Dr. Robert Finberg, a professor of medicine, is leading the study of host cells and genes that help the virus's spread. He and Dr. Scot Wolfe, a professor of molecular, cell and cancer biology, have ongoing studies of gene editing tools to define the virus and host genetic factors that determine susceptibility to the disease.
The third study is being led by Dr. Jeremy Luban, a professor of AIDS research and molecular medicine, who is working to see what makes the virus unique.
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