News & Updates

Four University of Alaska research teams have received grants totaling more than $64,000 to develop innovative concepts for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (Center ICE) awarded the grants after reviewing 28 submissions from a variety of UA researchers. The winning proposals will be funded with support from the Office of Naval Research.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) are actively engaged in educating, growing and sustaining a qualified workforce for the advancement of Quantum Information Science and Technology. NSF, in close coordination with OSTP, initiated and funded a virtual workshop hosted by the Harvard University, Center for Integrated Quantum Materials (CIQM) in March 2020. Entitled "Key Concepts for Future Quantum Information Science Learners," the workshop was designed to identify essential concepts for future curricular and educator activities that will help K-12 students engage with quantum information science (QIS).

Date: June 17 (Wednesday)
Time: Noon – 1:15 p.m. EDT

University of Kentucky engineering professor Dibakar Bhattacharyya recently announced he had the concept and the means to develop a medical face mask that would capture and deactivate COVID-19 on contact. Now, the director of UK’s Center of Membrane Sciences, along with collaborators from two different disciplines, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to make these masks a reality.

The Department of Biological Sciences team expects to finish preliminary tests within a year. Researchers will also develop a pipeline for identifying drugs that block viruses from infecting human cells. The project is funded with $100,000 from a National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant issued to U of I Department of Physics Professor Marty Ytreberg. The EPSCoR funds were provided to determine how amino acid changes modify the way proteins interact with other molecules.

In response to a request from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, UofL’s Additive Manufacturing Institute of Science & Technology (AMIST), along with faculty and students in the Schools of Dentistry, Engineering and Medicine, have created a 3-D printed swab made of a pliable resin material. Clinical trials of the 3-D printed swabs are expected to begin by the end of this week. With favorable results, it is anticipated they will be ready for use widely as early as the beginning of May.

A group of University of Kentucky professors and scientists’ efforts to identify possible direct therapeutic approaches to treat COVID-19 was published in the Perspectives section of the most recent issue of Science, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). "Rapid repurposing of drugs for COVID-19," is authored by Kip Guy, dean of UK College of Pharmacy; Robert DiPaola, dean of the UK College of Pharmacy; Frank Romanelli, professor in the UK College of Pharmacy; and Rebecca Dutch, professor in the UK College of Medicine. The article details the approach to repurpose approved drugs that are currently developed for other uses.

If the SARS-CoV-2 virus is to be contained and cases of COVID-19 controlled, more knowledge is needed about how the virus is spread, who becomes ill and how the illness progresses. The University of Louisville is already at work to answer these urgent questions to reduce the impact of the global pandemic.

University of Louisville researchers have developed a technology that is believed to block the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 from infecting human cells. The technology is based on a piece of synthetic DNA – an “aptamer” – which targets and binds with a human protein called nucleolin. Early tests show that this aptamer may stop viruses, including novel coronavirus, from “hijacking” nucleolin to replicate inside the body. UofL is seeking to fast-track development, including application to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to start treating patients seriously affected with COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the expansion of telemedicine, and as part of that expansion, faculty at the University of Louisville are piloting new smart glasses for advanced delivery of health care. Long-term care facilities and emergency departments represent two of the areas with greatest need for the glasses for direct physician care during the pandemic. The UofL Trager Institute, emergency medicine and psychiatry are part of a feasibility study to test the Vuzix M400 smart glasses.