COVID-19

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office According to a new study led by an MIT professor, the R&D tax credit has a significant effect on entrepreneurship. Moreover, the study finds a striking contrast between two types of tax credits. While the R&D tax credit fuels high-quality new-firm growth, the state-level investment tax credit, which supports…

By Marcin Minor Wladek Minor, PhD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and other top structural biologists have led an international team of biomedical scientists to investigate the protein structures contained in the COVID-19 virus – structures that are vital to developing treatments and vaccines. The team has created a web resource that…

For biopharma companies seeking increased development and manufacturing capacity for vaccines and therapies, including new COVID-19-related programs, Thermo Fisher Scientific provided highlights of its new capabilities during the BIO International Convention, June 8-12, now a virtual event at bio.org/events/bio-digital. “We can now provide an uninterrupted path from development to commercialization for biopharma companies, small to…

The coronavirus COVID-19, which first appeared in the Chinese province of Wuhan in December of 2019, spread to all continents of the world within just a few weeks. National and international authorities are currently managing efforts to contain the virus by deliberately interrupting infection chains. At the same time, the virus is being examined at…

By Theresa Duque A team of scientists from Stanford University is working with researchers at the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility located at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), to develop a gene-targeting, antiviral agent against COVID-19. Last year, Stanley Qi, an assistant professor in the departments of bioengineering, and…

Vögtlin Instruments, a member company of the TASI Group’s Flow Division, specializing in gas flow technology, is supplying SSN Machinery in Turkey with mass flow controllers in the development of a highly sophisticated and reliable mechanical ventilators designed to save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The swiss-engineered mass flow controllers will ensure a highly reliable…

French company, Stilla Technologies, a provider of pioneering solutions for high-precision genetic analysis, is offering a new high-throughput and cost-effective testing approach for COVID-19 by combining its digital PCR technology with the group testing method. They are also publishing the results of this, the largest comparative study to date for group testing of SARS-CoV-2. “We…

A patented method for single biomolecule detection that overcomes limitations of current technologies may help in the fight against COVID-19. Purdue University innovators created a method that uses a special sensor similar to a computer chip. The application-specific integrated circuit chip is designed for the early detection of a number of pathogens and viruses. “We…

The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused an increased demand for antimicrobial treatments that can keep surfaces clean, particularly in health care settings. Although some surfaces have been developed that can combat bacteria, what’s been lacking is a surface that can also kill off viruses. Now, researchers have found a way to impart durable antiviral and…

By Glenn Roberts Jr. Laser and biology experts at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are working together to develop a platform and experiments to study the structure and components of viruses like the one causing COVID-19, and to learn how viruses interact with their surrounding environment. The experiments could provide new insight on how…

To support increasing demand globally for COVID-19 testing, BioDot has compressed production times for most new lateral flow-dispensing platforms from months to weeks. Each platform, or “work cell,” which dispenses highly precise volumes of specialized reagents for detecting COVID-19 antibodies, can enable production of one million point-of-care tests per week. BioDot is operating seven days…

By Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office Vaccines are more likely to get through clinical trials than any other type of drug — but have been given relatively little pharmaceutical industry support during the last two decades, according to a new study by MIT scholars. Over a two-decade span from January 2000 to January 2020, private-sector…

Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX), a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced enrollment of the first participants in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX‑CoV2373, a stable, prefusion protein made using its proprietary nanoparticle technology. NVX‑CoV2373 includes Novavax’ proprietary Matrix‑M adjuvant to enhance immune responses and stimulate…

By Steve Tally Much attention has been focused on how universities moved quickly from in-person classes to online instruction at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, research experiments and activities requiring on-campus laboratories and field sites across the state and the world were arguably disrupted even more. To measure and document the level of…

By Theresa Duque A technology spun from carbon nanotube sensors discovered 20 years ago by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists could one day help health care providers test patients for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. When Alex Zettl, Marvin Cohen, and their research teams at Berkeley Lab first demonstrated ultrasensitive…

By Julie Chao One of the many unanswered scientific questions about COVID-19 is whether it is seasonal like the flu – waning in warm summer months then resurging in the fall and winter. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are launching a project to apply machine-learning methods to a plethora of health…

AR Tech, a division of A&R Tarpaulins, announced today that FDA has granted an EUA for its Patient Isolation Transportation Unit (PITU) to help hospitals better manage the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally developed by Dr. Mark Comunale, head of anesthesiology at Arrowhead Medial Center (Colton, Calif.), intended for use for Ebola. “PITU also allows…

The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) and Aon (NYSE: AON), an international professional services firm providing a range of risk, retirement and health solutions, released “Beyond Patents: IP Strategy, Valuation, and Management in Manufacturing” that delves into the current state of intellectual property (IP) in the sector. At its core, the research found…

By Aliyah Kovner As scientists across the globe race to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, an international team led by Davide Corti at Vir Biotechnology and David Veesler at the University of Washington has been working around the clock on a complementary approach – identifying neutralizing antibodies that could be…

Enabling science is vital in the fight against COVID-19. PerkinElmer is actively working with global customers – which include specialty and reference diagnostic labs, clinics, hospitals, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical labs, academia and governmental and research institutes – to combat the pandemic. Their innovative detection, workflow and research solutions are being used to drive better outcomes…

By Manette Fisher Teens who built 3D printers during a weeklong robotics camp at Sandia National Laboratories last year have used them to make more than 3,000 face shields that have been donated to medical professionals and first responders in New Mexico. The camp was hosted by Sandia in collaboration with R4 Creating, a nonprofit…

DefiniGEN, a UK-headquartered iPSC disease-modelling company, has identified iPSC-derived intestinal organoids that could be used to help structure in vitro studies of the biology of SARS-CoV2 infection across cohorts of multiple patients. While SARS-CoV-2 primarily targets the respiratory system, studies have shown that it also infects and multiplies within the intestinal epithelium. IPSC-derived organoids exhibit…

By JULIE CHAO As society prepares to reopen indoor spaces and ease back into some sense of normalcy during the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is launching a study of the risk of airborne transmission of viruses within buildings and how to mitigate…

Leica Microsystems has donated a THUNDER 3D Live Cell imaging system to the Institute of Virology of Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin. Since the start of the current coronavirus outbreak, the Institute on Campus Charité Mitte, led by Director Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten, has been at the forefront of viral research into SARS-CoV-2, the virus that…

By Manette Fisher Distillery-developed hand sanitizer is leaving a New Mexico warehouse as quickly as it disappeared from grocery stores after Sandia National Laboratories helped confirm the product meets all federal requirements for distribution. In response to the severe, widespread shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wayward Sons Craft-Distillery in Santa Fe, NM, reconfigured its operations…