Penn Medicine Launches Center to Accelerate Coronavirus Research

April 03, 2020 - The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has launched a new center to better understand the pathology of coronavirus and support the development of potential vaccines, diagnostic tools, and effective therapies.

For more coronavirus updates, visit our resource page, updated twice daily by Xtelligent Healthcare Media.

The new Center of Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens will expand and speed research on the disease, allowing people to develop viable treatments faster.

“There’s an urgent need to gain a greater understanding of the basic biology of SARS-CoV-2 and to advance research efforts that can help inform our diagnostic and therapeutic approaches,” said Susan Weiss, PhD, a professor of Microbiology at Penn and a world-renowned leader in coronavirus research.

“Our goal in establishing this Center is to coordinate the efforts among our large, multidisciplinary group—comprised of investigators and clinicians—to help expedite the discovery of safe and effective therapies and potential vaccines.”

There are seven strains of coronaviruses, including COVID-19, that are known to infect humans. Two of the strains cause common colds, while two others cause more serious disease, including pneumonia and bronchiolitis.

The others are known to cause potentially life-threatening respiratory illnesses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Cases of COVID-19 can cause mild to severe illness, and in some cases, death.

At Penn Medicine, there are currently a number of ongoing research efforts, such as screening a variety of potential therapies for activity against SARS-CoV-2, as well as diagnostic test development. These tests are being designed so that people can use them at home, in the clinic, and at points of entry to healthcare facilities.

Researchers are also exploring host innate immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and how this virus differs from other human coronaviruses, and developing advanced vaccines against the disease. Additionally, teams are collecting samples to analyze the effects of COVID-19 on the lung microbiome. These findings will help guide providers treating patients.

Teams are also currently working on developing personal protective equipment technologies, inexpensive ventilator technologies, pneumonia screening, and 3-D printing applications.

Researchers from Penn Medicine, the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP), and the Wistar Institute will serve on the Center’s Internal Advisory Board.

Researchers across the healthcare continuum are working to quickly find treatments and solutions for COVID-19.

Two graduates of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, Andrew Satz and Brett Averso, are creating machine learning algorithms capable of computationally generating, screening, and optimizing hundreds of millions of therapeutic antibodies.

“What our algorithms do is reduce the likelihood of drug-discovery failure in the lab,” said Satz. “We fail in the computer as much as possible to reduce the possibility of downstream failure in the laboratory. And that shaves a significant amount of time from laborious and time-consuming work.”

With the new center, Penn Medicine researchers will aim to collect information and catalyze opportunities for new funding for research related to COVID-19 and other emerging pathogens.

“We’ve seen a rapid mobilization of research efforts—both here at Penn and in the scientific community nationwide—to address the novel coronavirus outbreak,” said Frederic Bushman, PhD, chair of Microbiology.

“Through this Center, we hope to scale up existing research efforts and launch targeted new projects to help develop safe and effective ways to diagnose, treat and even prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections.”